With considerable success on the cricketing stage,comes a snappish temper. Or so it might seem having seen the incessant number of altercations that the England team have indulged in with the Indians so far. An Ashes victory in Australia,followed by climbing to the top of the Test rankings with a complete rout of India back home,England arrived in Hyderabad two weeks ago as the new overlords of the cricketing world. But that indomitable aura that they seemed to command over the last three months has worn off rather rapidly with every single thrashing that Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team have handed out to the visitors,one that ended in a resounding some would also say revengeful 5-0 thrashing in Kolkata. And while Alastair Cook & Co have barely managed to compete in any of the ODI matches,their only response was blowing their tops off and throwing some schoolboyish tantrums. Be it Jade Dernbach mouthing off invectives at the Indian batsmen,Samit Patel getting in the way of R Ashwin,Tim Bresnan receiving a disciplinary fine,Steven Finn having a go at Virat Kohli at Wankhede or Ian Bell and Ravindra Jadeja exchanging verbal volleys at the end of Kolkata game,England have shown a really ugly side of their character so far. The last incident,however,was symbolic,considering a one-sided series ended just the way it had been played all along,with an ugly player versus player duel. But England coach Andy Flower has promised to stamp it out of their game. Its just another little,niggly incident none of us really want to see. Well ensure these incidents are stamped out, Flower was quoted as saying in The Guardian. Insuppressible frustration The Englishmens seemingly insuppressible frustration,however,might well be the outcome of a very successful team suddenly running into a spate of disastrous failures. At their peak,Steve Waughs world-beaters from Australia had believed strongly in sledging out batsmen,or by mentally disintegrating them as they called it. But the invincible force from Down Under too often let tempers flare at the face of defeat,most famously during the 2001 series in India and also in 2005 as Ricky Pontings team surrendered the Ashes,leading to them being termed the Ugly Aussies. Thanks to Englands unprecedented successes in recent times (especially in Test cricket) many of the players (especially the younger ones) in the present lot have not experienced too many losses in their nascent careers. Bresnan,for example,has never been part of a Test loss. And with the Indian juggernaut rolling as rampantly as it has during the ODI series,Bresnan & Co have looked out of depth and rather immature in dealing with it. The taste of failure has been too bitter for their liking. A failed leader But where Cook has failed as a leader is in allowing his men to show their annoyance outwardly without ever trying to plug it. He has given up control too meekly. Never under Waugh or even Ponting did the Australians ever implode to the extent of losing their cool with their own lot. The England bowlers have rebuked the erring parties in their own side,as wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter will tell you after he dropped Kohli in Mohali. Even misfields and overthrows havent been forgiven without a yelling. That the pitches havent been to their liking,and the October sun has beaten down mercilessly on the backs,havent helped Englands cause one bit. Cooks entourage have enhanced their own woes by being inconsistent and overly indisciplined with all three facets of their game. Their fielding and catching in particular have turned from being ragged in Hyderabad to quite pathetic in Mohali and Mumbai-burgeoned by Kieswetters horrors behind the stumps-and the Indians have made the most of it as the scoreline would indicate. Bresnan had defended his teams tantrum-throwing after the ill-tempered clash at Delhi. We cant use the ball to intimidate here,so we have to do other things to get into the batsmans bubble, he was quoted as saying in The Telegraph. But England have taken the aggression a bit too far in the series. The Indians have held their own as well in that regard,giving match referee Roshan Mahanama plentiful headaches. And the Sri Lankan has demanded for better discipline from both teams. Bad blood The bad blood has carried on even off the field,with both Dhoni and Flower getting involved. And Dhoni couldnt help but add salt to Englands wounds by highlighting the lack of team-spirit in the opposition camp after wrapping up the series in Mohali. The musings of Graeme Swann against teammate Kevin Pietersen and captain Cooks captaincy in his autobiography that released during the tour have only added to suspicions of mutiny in the English camp. The two-month long break before their Middle Eastern sojourn to face Pakistan will certainly help Cooks men calm down their tempers. Before that,however,a face-saving win during the one-off T20 in Kolkata on Saturday seems almost compulsory for this Ugly England outfit for more reasons than just avoiding a winless tour.
