Published>Sat, Oct 02 10 06:52 AM
An India vs Australia is never complete until a few words are exchanged out in the middle. Whether it was Harbhajan Singh back in '98, Michael Slater in '01 or the infamous Symonds-was-called-monkey row in 2008, the tongue wagging invariably ends up in the match referee's cabin, and as the talking point of the series. It looks like the trend is bound to continue, as the mid-pitch banter heated up not long after the players lined up on the field. Even before stumps was called on the first day's play of the first Test match in Mohali, the Indians chalked up the black marks in the code-of-conduct logs.
For once, it was Team India who initiated the war of words, and Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting bore the brunt first up. On Friday, after being run out for 71, Ponting wasn't amused by the comments directed at him from Zaheer Khan, who was part of the customary Indian huddle. Ponting angrily pointed his bat at the left-arm pacer and exchanged verbal volleys, even as umpire Billy Bowden quickly intervened and sorted things out. A visibly irate Ponting made his way back to the pavilion.
Both teams quickly brushed off the exchanges as usual banter on the field, while there was no word from match referee Chris Broad either. The incident, however, has put a little more intensity to a series that has been unusually quiet in the lead-up.
"When two highly competitive teams play each other, these things are bound to happen. Like the Australians, we too play a tough brand of cricket and sometimes, words are exchanged. You like to play hard and the banter is just part-and-parcel of it," Pragyan Ojha reasoned. Shane Watson though, backed his captain and insisted that Zaheer was the one to initiate the talk. "I have seen the footage, Zaheer came out of the huddle and said something which escalated the confrontation after Ricky was run out.
On the eve of the match, Ponting had indicated his desire to play the game in the right spirit. "I think it's the responsibility of both teams. It is important for international cricket that this series is played in the right spirit. You've got to expect that it's going to be a fierce contest because you've got two very good teams playing, but both teams will understand that they can't overstep the line. Around the world, there's enough negative publicity for cricket at the moment and we have to do the best we can in this series to ensure that people want to watch the game again. There's no doubt that things have been tarnished a bit the last few weeks," Ponting had said.
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