Snippets Fumes: BCCI Meet : Bucknor relieved :Peter Roebuck wants captain Ricky sacked

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SPORTING legends
have condemned the Australian team's behaviour as India confirmed that
they will continue the fiery Test series - with conditions.

The
Indian cricket board announced in New Delhi early today that Anil
Kumble's side will resume their suspended tour of Australia but will
continue to protest at the three-Test ban on Harbhajan for racial
abuse.

And the BCCI laid the condition that Harbhajan should
eventually be cleared of the charge and a three-match ban imposed by
the International Cricket Council dropped.

As moves started to
defuse the Indian tour crisis yesterday, Sport Australia Hall of Fame
members John Bertrand, Herb Elliott and Rob de Castella accused the
Australians of turning sport into war.

Bertrand, the Hall of
Fame chairman, said the organisation would seek an urgent meeting with
Cricket Australia this week. He said the Australian Test team was
damaging international relations.

"Sport is only sport. It's
not war," Bertrand told the Herald Sun. "We believe Australia's Test
team moral compass needs to be retuned and we want Cricket Australia to
know that."

India's tour appeared to get back on track last
night when the International Cricket Council caved in to the tourists'
demands by clearing the way for suspended spinner Harbhajan Singh to
play in next week's third Test in Perth, dumping umpire Steve Bucknor,
and appointing chief match referee Ranjan Madugalle as mediator between
the warring sides.

Ricky Ponting's team was slammed for bad
sportsmanship after they snatched a thrilling victory in the second
Test in Sydney on the weekend.

The final straw for India came when Harbhajan was banned for three Tests for racist abuse against Andrew Symonds.

He denied calling Symonds a "monkey" and India threatened to go home.

The ICC yesterday indicated Harbhajan's appeal would not be heard before the Perth Test, which would clear him to play.

ICC
chief executive Malcolm Speed admitted the dumping of umpire Bucknor,
who made a number of poor decisions that fuelled Indian anger, was an
attempt to pacify India.

"We want to take some of the tension out of the situation," he said.

Bertrand said Elliott, de Castella other Hall of Famers shared his view that Australia was too arrogant.

"Both Rob and Herb feel very strongly about this issue," he said.

"We
will be seeking a meeting with Cricket Australia to seek to get the
Australian team to readjust their behaviour so that they do show
respect for their opponents."

"We have a lot of clout in the
sporting community and we will be saying to Cricket Australia that
people need to step back and reassess what is happening here with a
cool head," Bertrand said.

"The pressure to win out on the
field has become too hot, and that pressure is all about winning at all
costs. That is not what sport is about.

"We believe the No.1 rule is to show respect for your fellow competitors and currently this does not appear to be the case.

"Their
desire to win at all costs is beginning to blur their moral compass and
it would appear that is what happening to the Australian Test team.

"The
fallout that we are seeing at the moment is not acceptable. It's
clearly damaging international relations and clearly a lot of people
are upset."

The Sport Australia Hall of Fame has almost 500 members and prides itself on supporting athletes in all sports.

Cricket
great Sir Donald Bradman was its first inductee in 1985. The Don award
is given each year to the sportsperson considered to have most inspired
the nation.

Several other top sporting figures also expressed their concern about the Aussie Test team.

Footy legend Ron Barassi said Australia should be the world leader in all aspects of the game.

"I'm
very concerned the word unsportsmanlike is being thrown around in
relation to the cricket, and there is a fine line between arrogance and
confidence," he said.

"It concerns me that the Australians are
regularly being referred to as being arrogant and because it is
mentioned so often, you begin to wonder."

Kevin Bartlett, another AFL legend, said he defined bad sportsmanship as not showing respect to your opponents.

"You don't treat them with contempt, you treat them with respect -- and I didn't see that from the Aussies," he said.

Australia's national netball coach Jill McIntosh said the Aussies were a "little arrogant".

"It
worries me that the Australian cricket teams of recent times have been
called the worst sledgers in the game. Why don't they just rely on
their skills?" she said.

"They don't need to sledge. They are an incredibly skilled team."

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23026032-5006069,00.html

Bucknor dumped tension likely to defuse todays evening as BCCI  in its Working Committee meetings will decide the contentious issues of Harbhjan Ban on three tests imposed at the witness th Aussie side only and ignoring the Indians point of view.Umpire Buckner unfair one dozen decision and to carry him for the rest of series on the plea of ICC rules which has mar the series, will definitely be the agenda of the Board to take stock of the situation arisen thereof.
India cricket tour to Australia is likely to resume as Bucknor has
been relieved from his unholy presence at the remain tests which has
spewed overall anger in India and has lowered the prestige of Aussie
spirit of their national game cricket.
Bucknor was at the centre of a more than one dozen of contentious decisions during the Sydney Test including giving Australian all rounder Andrew Symonds not out on 30 as then he went on to score a scintillating century.
ICC CEO Malcolm Speed made the announcement at a press conference in Melbourne this afternoon. Mr Speed, an Australian, said India would not pull out of the Perth and Adelaide Tests.
Australia should immediately sack its arrogant and abrasive captain Ricky Ponting and it"s a surprise that India has not called off the tour and gone back home, said an aghast Peter Roebuck. Lambasting the members of the
Australian side for their rude behavior, Roebuck, the former Somerset
captain who is based in Sydney, singled out Ponting and said the
captain must be sacked.
“If Cricket Australia cares a fig for the tattered reputation of our national team in our national sport, it will not for a moment longer tolerate the sort of arrogant and abrasive conduct seen
from the captain and his senior players over the past few days," said
the furious former cricketer, also one of the best cricket writers of
his era.“Beyond comparison it was the ugliest performance put
up by an Australian side for 20 years," he wrote in his column for
‘Sydney Morning Herald".“The only surprising part of it is that the Indians
have not packed their bags and gone home. There is no justice for them
in this country, nor any manners," he observed.He said the lack of sportsmanship among the Australians hurt their young fans and former players alike.“Pained past players rang to express their disgust.
It was a wretched and ill-mannered display and not to be endured from
any side, let alone an international outfit representing a proud
sporting nation," Roebuck wrote.According to him, Ponting and his men had embarrassed Australia through their triumph in the spiteful second Test.“The notion that Ponting can hereafter take the Australian team to India is preposterous. He has shown not the slightest interest in the well-being of the game… not a single mark of respect for his accomplished and widely admired opponents."
He was no less harsh on the hosts for targeting Harbhajan Singh, who has been slapped a three-match ban for racially abusing Andrew Symonds, a charge the player and his team have vociferously refuted.“Harbhajan Singh can be an
irritating young man but he is head of a family and responsible for
raising nine people. And all the Australian elders want to do is to
hunt him from the game.”“Australian fields men fire insults
from the corners of their mouths, an intemperate Sikh warrior
overreacts and his rudeness is seized upon. It might impress barrack
room lawyers," he said.“In the past few days, Ponting has
presided over a performance that dragged the game into the pits. He
turned a group of professional cricketers into a pack of wild dogs." Indian Players sat outside their hotel for two hours before returning to their rooms under orders from the Board of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI), the spokesman and reporters at the scene said.

"We have been instructed by BCCI to stay in Sydney until we get further
instructions," team spokesman M.V. Sridhar told journalists.Describing
the ban on Harbhajan Singh as unfair and unacceptable, the BCCI has
made it clear that it will appeal against the order and fight the
"false slur" cast on its ace spinner.After a meeting of its top office bearers to take stock of the situation, the BCCI said it will also request ICC in its appeal to suspend the order of three Test ban against Harbhajan.BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shuklasaid that president Sharad Pawar had convened the meeting which discussed all the developments which led to India's defeat in the second Test against Australia and also the issue of Harbhajan Singh.
The Cricket Board came out with a statement, saying that it was committed to protect the country's fair name. Following is the statement by BCCI president Sharad Pawar."BCCI is filing an appeal challenging match referee Mike Proctor's order on spinner Harbhajan Singh.
"Unfair allegation of racism against our Indian player is wholly unacceptable. The game of cricket is paramount but so too is the honour of India's cricket team and every Indian."The BCCI is committed to protect the country's fair name. India's national commitment is against racism. Our national struggle is based on values which negate racism.BCCIwill fight this false and unfair slur cast on our player. BCCI will request the ICC and in its appeal to suspend the order against Harbhajan Singh till the disposal of the appeal," BCCI President Sharad Pawar said.DD News
"There was no concrete evidence. It was very much their word against ours. How could Procter take this decision?" a source in the Indian camp demanded. The Indian had been charged on Harabhajan Ban under Rule 3.3 of the ICC's Code of Conduct.
Ganguly said the off-spinner has shown his class by not letting the incident affect his on-field performance."He's a competitor, he's got a lot of quality in him, quality players will always produce their best under pressure," Ganguly said.

"Only one team was playing in the spirit of the game, that's all I can
say," Kumble told a news conference after the Sydney Cricket Ground
test.Aussies were beneficiaries of as many as four shockingly
incorrect decisions at Sydney on Wednesday.

"Let us look at like this that Symonds is only a smoke screen being used by Ricky to get Harbhajan out for the rest of the tournament for the former knows that the latter is a threat to his batting averages. It may even be at the cost of his own principles "what happens in the field, stays in the field". But then who cares. I don't know if Symond realizes this," writes Sam Johnson from Sydney on Timesonline.co.uk.

Oxenford, the third umpire is an Australian - he hails from Queensland, the same state as Symonds. His "not out" decision when Dhoni whipped off the bails even as Symonds’s foot was in the air, builds a stronger case for neutral third umpires. Former Australian batsman Michael Slater said: "Even all the Australians on the Channel 9 commentary team clearly thought Symonds was out."
Indian team manager Chetan Chauhan said the Indian cricket board
(BCCI) had called on the International Cricket Council to switch
umpires for the final two matches of the series.
"The umpiring was flawed, the team is agitated," he said. "They are
upset, a lot of decisions have gone against us, a few went against the
Australians as well but it really affected us."
Chauhan said if the 50-50 calls had gone in India's favor, the
tourists would now be 1-1 in the series instead of two down with the
next match in Perth — where conditions are ideally suited to
Australia's fast bowlers.
"We are not saying this because we have lost the game. It was for
everybody to see," Chauhan said. "I have been informed by the BCCI that
they are lodging a strong protest with the ICC so that some of the
incompetent umpires will not umpire in the rest of the series."The ICC said Harbhajan was alleged to have made a "monkey" comment directed at Symonds.his ban added fuel to fire.Earlier, BCCI president Sharad Pawar said India has filed a strong complaint with the ICC against the controversial decisions by the umpires- Steve Bucknor and Benson.Meanwhile, the simmering feud between the Indian and Australian cricket
teams took another turn today (Sunday) with the visitors lodging a
complaint against spinner Brad Hogg for using abusive language during
the second Test.Two Australian greats, ex-Aussie skipper Steve Waugh and Ian
Healy, suggested after the day’s play that changes are necessary to shake
up an underperforming group of Elite Panel umpires. "Four obvious errors in one day is poor concentration," said Waugh.
Healy said he was all for referrals, or ‘captain’s challenge,’ as he called them, to give teams an opportunity to dispute an umpire’s call. Sadly, that’s exactly what the umpires might have done here."You cannot take the fielders word for it when the fielder as a batsman nicked the ball and did not walk. How can you be honest as a fielder and not as a batsman," asked Gavaskar.Gavaskar was livid after Ganguly was adjudged out caught. Replays showed that Benson had asked Australian skipper Ricky Ponting if Clark had held on to the catch cleanly. Ponting replied in the affirmative and Benson ruled Ganguly out.
"Benson should have asked his mate at square leg Steve Bucknor or referred it to the third umpire," he added.

The batting legend also pointed out that both Michael Clarke and Ricky
Ponting did not walk after nicking the ball while they were batting so
how can the umpires take their word while making decisions.

Steve Bucknor seems to chase the Indians wherever they go.
The list is long, but here are some of his more infamous decisions..

1.2nd Test 1992, India Vs South Africa at Johannesburg. SA was 73 for 5, and there was a run out appeal against Jonty Rhodes. Bucknor ruled not out, even though replays suggested it was out. He didn’t bother to refer to the third umpire. South Africa scored 292 and drew the match.
2.India Vs Pakistan at Kolkata, 1998-99. Shoaib obstructed Sachin and appealed for a run out. Mr Bucknor ignored his obstructions and referred the matter to third umpire, who had to rule out.

3.Ignored Sachin’s pleas for bad light at Kolkata in March 2005 and then gave him out caught behind to Abdul Razzaq in semi-darkness.

4. Gave Sachin out leg-before to Jason Gillespie in Brisbane during the 2003-04 tour. The ball was outside the line of off stump. Then-skipper Sourav Ganguly gave him a zero in the captain’s report.

Ponting has struggled in this series with scores of four and three in
Melbourne and 55 and one in Sydney, three times falling to Harbhajan
Inputs from agencies