The Baggy Green is amongst the most respected and distinct identities in international cricket, but this Australian team has shown its true colours. The team stayed in the dressing room very late in the night, waiting for their skipper and other mates to return from the Harbhajan Singh hearing, and partied long after their hard-fought win in the the second Test here. The Indian team, though, is clear that the Australians cheated to win. “Only one team played in the spirit of the game, that’s all I can say.” Anil Kumble made this subtle, yet scathing attack against the Australians’ unsporting attitude by repeating the same line that Bill Woodfull, the former Australian skipper used in the 1932-33 Bodyline series against England. Skipper Ricky Ponting led the way in on that front too. Ponting’s appeals on the field and his strong defence of his team’s approach clearly suggest that the Australian skipper, who sportingly denied taking a catch of Rahul Dravid on Day Two, was a mere aberration from his normal self. Today, Ponting claimed a catch of Dhoni when he had clearly grounded the ball, though thankfully it was adjudged not out by the umpire as it had not hit the bat. This was in blatant violation to the verbal deal accepted from either skipper to be honest to the umpires, who would refer to them first in case of doubt. “There’s no way I grounded that ball. If you’re actually questioning my integrity in the game, then you shouldn’t be standing there. You know what I did in the first innings. Doesn’t that explain the way I play the game?” asked Ponting. No matter how fiercely the Australian skipper defended himself, his fate was sealed by the television replays that detailed the truth. Joining him in the ranks was his deputy Adam Gilchrist, very famous ly considered a honest walker, who straight away appealed twice for caught behind when there was no evidence clearly of the bat involved anyway. He got Rahul Dravid off Andrew Symonds though Gilchrist wasn’t too lucky against Dhoni. Australia’s next skipper in the making is not totally unrelated to this school of thought either. Clarke waited for the umpire to give him out despite a big edge that went into second slip yesterday before claiming a Sourav Ganguly catch that clearly bounced before his hand. Ganguly stood his ground while Benson, keeping in mind the agreement between two skippers, asked Ponting who signaled out with a raised finger after consulting Clarke who indicated in the affirmative. Then there’s Symonds, who stood his ground after getting a nick and then admitted it openly and carried on to bat the next day. Matthew Hayden, too, admitted yesterday that there’s nothing wrong in waiting for the umpire’s finger to go up even when you know you are out. Obviously, the pressure to make the record-equaling 16th Test victory was too much to handle for the world-beaters to approach it with the right spirit and the Indian team certainly minced no words about that. “We’d like to play hard on the field and expect that from the Australians as well,” Kumble said. “I’ve played my cricket very sincerely and honestly, that’s the approach my team takes, and we expect that from Australia as well,” he added.
