News headlines


Rediff

Hyderabad, Oct 4: Star Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh revealed that it was an unrelenting barrage of vulgar personal remarks from the Australian fielders that provoked him to a verbal duel in the second One-Day International at Kochi.

In the heated match on Tuesday, Harbhajan got out to Michael Clarke and while leaving, the off-spinner was seen exchanging words with the Australians till umpire Steve Bucknor patted him on his shoulder, asking him to move on.

Harbhajan later revealed that he was reacting to some vulgar personal comments from the Aussies. He felt the 'arrogant' Aussies were still smarting from their Twenty20 World Cup defeat to India and their outburst was just a manifestation of that frustration.

"They think they are superior and can do and say whatever they like, but that is not the case," Harbhajan said.

"They are very bad losers. They were beaten in the (Twenty20) World Cup and they clearly did not like that," the off-spinner was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald.

"They are a very good cricket side, but that does not mean that they can do whatever they want to do. They say they play the game in the right spirit, but they don't in reality. There is nothing gentlemanly about the way they play," said Harbhajan, seething with anger.

Harbhajan said he did not mind little war of words but stooping to personal level was a strictly no-no.

"I was responding to a lot of vulgar words that were said to me. I don't have any problem with chitchat on the field, so long as it is about the game. But when it is very personal and vulgar, that is not on. They think you cannot fight back and they do not like it when you do."

"I won't listen to that crap. If they want to play like that, they'll get it back from us," Harbhajan said.

The second one dayer was marked by a number of such moments and Indian pacer S Sreesanth [Images] too had an altercation with Andrew Symonds and after the match, ICC Match Referee Chris Broad called Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Mahendra Singh Dhoni and asked them to rein in their teammates.

Harbhajan said the Aussies as poor losers and every other team share this sentiment.

"Ask any team. They will tell you that when (Australia) get beaten, they react badly.

"In this game, you win some and you lose some, but regardless of the result, there is no excuse for their kind of behaviour," he asserted.

The daily also quoted Symonds lashing out at Sreesanth and saying, "When I go to another code of sport I like to see confrontation, I'll admit that, but you don't want to see ugly confrontation and you certainly don't want to see confrontation that degrades your code".

He, however, gave enough indications that the Australians would continue with their all-round aggressive approach to the game to gain a psychological edge.

"Because we've got them for so long, if you can get an edge over them, it starts to eat into them mentally as well I think," he said.

"If we can play well here on their end, it would be good to take that confidence and that success back home," Symonds said. 

  

Top Stories

Comment on this article

  • Ananda P., Hejamady/Mumbai

    Sun, Oct 07 2007

    If some Aussie players make sledging or remarks, Inidans are also in no way left behind. Sreeshanth acts like a Gorilla in the wild after delivering every Ball. Instead of returning the sledge by sledging back, Indians must concentrate on the game and attempt for win against Aussies. That will be the fitting answer for sledges. If Indians sledge back and lose the game without putting up any fight is nothing but shame.

    DisAgree Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • Ranjan Pinto, Mangalore/Muscat

    Fri, Oct 05 2007

    Sresanth and some of our Indian players should undergo behaviour training first. If this abusing habit continues in Cricket then, the BCCI will have to the players not only based on their performance but,also on the knowledge of Abuses. It's time for Cricketer's to behave in a nice manner since I feel Cricket is a Gentleman's game.

    DisAgree Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • Peal Prabhu, Mangalore

    Fri, Oct 05 2007

    Whatever the argument maybe, SreSanth and Harbhajan are unfit to play Cricket they are better to be sent to the Border and they are fit to be there. Atleast these two should learn something Gentlemanship from Sachin. Many a time he also been targeted by differnt teams but he gave the fitting answer by Bat&Ball not by uncivilized manner.

    DisAgree Agree Reply Report Abuse


Leave a Comment

Title: News headlines



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.