WELL, IT'S NOT QUITE CRICKET

Cricket since its inception has been racist for humanity has been so. The English found Bradman hard to digest, hence, bodyline. Till Tendulkar came on to popularise cricket in liberalising India to levels unprecedented and the riches of the BBCI came to dominate ICC proceedings, this white racism was an accepted feature despite isolated individual attempts to get past it. Now, with the power equation shifting considerably owing to financial considerations, this white supremacist attitude shows its ugly fangs less often and in a more measured and discreet manner but in no mean a manner, nonetheless. Coming to the current 'cricket' episode now, the Aussies have been booked for a betrayal of the spirit of the game at long last. This has ever been their manner of play short of such absolute perfidy as in the current instance, and they are reaping the fruits of their abuse of the cricketing culture for so long. Karma inevitably recoils and so have the Aussies been exposed for their cumulative violation of the spirit of cricket. Dennis Lillee had filthily abused Sunil Gavaskar in the 1981 Test Series down under over a controversial leg-before decision that the umpire had delivered despite the ace Indian opener, in the words of RIchie Benaud, having had 'the thickest of edges'. Gavaskar pointed to his bat and thus drew the attention of the umpire but Lillee charged down the pitch and poured expletives at Gavaskar of the most horrendous familial order. It was only then and not before that Gavaskar, who was the skipper as well, asked his partner, Chetan Chauhan, to leave the field which in cricketing annals is still remembered as the great fiasco of the 1981 Series while the real culprit, Lillee, continues to escape the censure of history. Finally, a word about the 'mental disintegration' theory of Steve Waugh which was the sophisticated form of gamesmanship or, in other words, cheating. If the Aussies ever really played cricket, it was during the Bodyline Series when they were at the receiving end of everything that could not be quite cricket. But the Aussies will not learn still, for one's fundamental trait does not alter nor does it give one reprieve and, so, the Aussies will be now ever more circumspect in exercising their considerable skills in perverting the spirit of the game and will be more diligently schooled in the sharpening of such skills while training in their cricket academies. The inertia of the past will still hold sway and the Aussies, despite perfect pretence like that of the Pommies, will continue to play the game the Aussie way which is not quite cricket.