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The ICC must stand firm
The third Test match at the WACA between Australia and India is now in doubt after India decided to suspend their cricket tour of Australia pending the outcome of an appeal against a three-match ban handed to spin bowler Harbhajan Singh.
It looks like to me that if the appeal fails then the tour will be cancelled but if the appeal is successful then the tour will proceed.
I think that the International Cricket Council (ICC) must stand firm and make the right decision for the sport instead of weighing on the tour cancellation and therefore I hope the ICC will stand firm if they have to uphold the initial decision made on Monday morning.
There were a lot of errors during the five day Test and a lot of them seemed to favour Australia and I think that has caused the emotions to rise and this Singh's ban has just inflammed an already volatile situation.
As I said in an earlier post a draw would have been a fairer result given the number of errors made by the umpires but then there was the dramatic Australia win which now looks like was aided by errors rather than being the better team over the course of five days.
Normally the errors seem to even out but I think in this case they did not even out. Andrew Symonds should probably have been out at 30 but was not given out, Mike Hussey maybe should have been out at 40 but was not given out and yet Dravid was given out when he probably should not have been out and the list goes on.
But at the same time if Singh called Symonds a 'monkey' then the ICC should act according to its zero tolerance policy on racism. Whether the ban should be 3 matches or not I don't know but a ban to me looks very appropriate in that case. But if he didn't say that then that's a different story.
Its also good that Ricky Ponting told the umpires once he realised something inappropriate had been said to one of his players and I think all captains should do the same. I don't think Ponting complained to the umpires for the sake of it or just to make sure that Singh gets some punishment.
I am eager to see what the result of the appeal will be but the ICC should stand firm and not be pushed around by any team or indvidual because none of that is bigger than the sport. Racism in cricket and in any other sport for that matter must be tackled and its up to the players to uphold the sport's code of conduct.
It appears that the ICC have yielded to pressure from India.
If it is true that Singh said what he is reported to have said then he deserves to be punished for the overall good of the Sport. There should be no exceptions.
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Thanks for the comment Admire. I also think that by replacing Steve Bucknor with Billy Bowden for the WACA Test the ICC has already bowed down to Indian pressure and this is not a good sign. It starts a very bad precedent and puts unnecessary pressure on the umpires especially when officiating in Indian matches.
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The boundary between money and sport is becoming even more blurred and this is a good example. India bring so much money into the sport and they know it and therefore they can do all sorts of things and get away with it because the money they bring means they wield some power.
But we must remember that India had very genuine concerns in this test match and some of the decisions could easily have meant an Indian victory but their behavior after this means that they have lost my sympathy. They should channel their grievances through the right channels like what they did with the appeal but if the decision is not in their favour they should just take it and move on. Thats what sportmen do or are supposed to do anyway.
But with their new found power I doubt they will take any decision that is not in their favour and to me thats a shame. This could be the start of a bad and sad era for cricket.
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Thanks Akim, I think there must be rules for everyone and when umpires cannot be changed for somebody then they shouldn't be changed because one team has requested that although India had good reasons to have such a request.
But yes, the India's reaction to the appeal if it fails is what I am waiting to see.