A cricket related post now.

The World cup has just started and cricket is of course on all cricket lovers' minds. but what i am going to write about here is something which is more of an 'off the field' matter.
Gavaskar recently went on an admonishing spree saying in print and possibly even on the tele that the Australians need to change the way they behave on the field. Ricky Ponting responded in acerbic fashion drawing to attention Gavaskar's own record for throwing tantrums and so on, as if saying, 'look who's talking!' and also made a reference about all knowing 'how India plays the game now'. I guess he was talking about India's abysmal playing record and of course, Australia have been doing so well for nearly 7 years now that, that point can get no retort.
Sunny responded as is his wont, this time talking about how the late David Hookes got into a brawl outside a bar in Melbourne which led to fistfights and how he succumbed to the injuries that ensued the brawl.
At this point, most Aussies were livid and starting talking about how Gavaskar was totally off his limits here and how his remarks, especially about the late 'Hooksy' were totally inappropriate if not in outright poor taste. That is the current scenario. One can find all the relevant stuff and who-said-what-to-whom from cricinfo.
Now, personally i think Sunny is a person who speaks what is on his mind, without sometimes
thinking to see if it is entirely relevant or not. The Aussie behavior (at least that is the impression i get in general) is a lot better now under Ponting's captaincy than it was under Waugh's. I certainly think that talking about an ex-player's death from some rowdy incident outside a pub,which automatically means most people there are speaking in an inebriated fashion, is to suggest that he sort of deserved what he got and that is outright offensive. Another point about Sunny is that he is a biased individual in general; for instance, Sachin Tendulkar can do no wrong! There might be a very nice shot being played by some player and if Sachin fields the ball, Sunny would get to talking about how accurate his throwing from the deep is, or how committed he is as a player and so on, it gets rather annoying after a while. Gavaskar also sends forth this strong pro-marathi feel. i've heard him criticize bowlers like Srinath several times for rubbish bowling while not really doing the same with Ajit Agarkar, who is inconsistency personified! So this was indeed an instance of Gavaskar putting both his feet into his mouth as far as the Hookes incident reference goes.
But when i see what the aussie media and some of their players have said in response, i think i see what Sunny is actually alluding to.
For starters, let us see what Ponting said in response. He could have attacked Sunny and that would have been tit for tat. but no, he had to say, 'we all know how india play their game' deriding India's track record. so, what he really is doing there is lashing out at the current indian team without provocation. Why?! i guess his intent was to somehow say something hurtful, thats all.
Allan Border followed it up by saying that Gavaskar missed an important point; that it is very much a cultural thing. and that something that people, say in the subcontinent, might find unsavory might not be the case with the Aussies in general. And Darren Lehmann followed it up with, "I came into the international arena a few years after he (Gavaskar) had retired. He was a player I admired. Not any more."
now, Border has a valid talking point but i think he TOTALLY missed what Sunny was talking about in principle. well, he is not entirely to blame there since what Gavaskar did refer to, was said in a very attacking manner to begin with. and as i said, his bias against the aussies has been fairly noticed for quite some time now.
Firstly, the potty mouthed players largely come from three countries - Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. the aussie influence on each of these countries is very large (New Zealand is like Australia's backyard and when SA were banned from the cricketing arena, many of their players migrated to australia and so on and in fact, SA - Australia have played several bilateral series for a long time now). so i think that when Gavaskar talks in particular about blaming it on the Australians, he is kind of justified there. furthermore, if players from other countries have started verbal volleys and stuff, the influence is distinctly australian, so if Sunny is talking of the influence on younger players as such, i think he is spot on.
talking about cultural differences, if 6 of the 9 test-playing nations think some kind of language or behavior is offensive, then it ought to be considered officially offensive! in the initial days, these 3 countries carried more financial and political clout, but that is not the case anymore. and if the people with the money and power feel that such behavior isn't keeping with the image of the game as such, then culture be damned, keep your traps shut!
to drive home this point finer, let me cite two examples. when the McGrath-Sarwan incident got ugly, Pidgy was of course hurt since Sarwan made a nasty reference to Pidgy's wife who was at that time battling breast cancer. of course, an extremely stupid thing to do but then Sarwan later apologized saying that he said all that in the heat of the moment and i guess it was an instance of alls-well-that-ends-well. But here's an important question: Was McGrath hurt because of his wife's condition or was he hurt because Sarwan said something about his wife?

now if it is the case of the latter, then him being hurt is plain hypocrisy considering the kind of nonsense he lets off his own mouth. i personally don't think that is the case; it seems very much to be the former.
But there's the point: you think talking something like that about a sick person is out of line, right? so you do believe that there is something called crossing the line. why should that point of 'losing it' necessarily be connected to someone being sick or ill or whatever? why didn't McGrath (and the aussies in general) think that whatever he did say (probably to taunt the batsman or disturb him or whatever) could have hurt his feelings as much as what Sarwan said hurt himself? Why can't the Aussies understand that other cultures don't tolerate the same kind of bantering which is probably common in Australia?
here's my second instance: When Steve Waugh and several others called Sourav Ganguly snooty and stuff because Sourav made him wait at the toss, he became a sort of hero in India. he became the man who stood up to the Aussies and delivered an appropriate punch on their faces. yes, what he did was unethical, but not against any cricketing laws, i guess. Likewise there might be no laws that say you can't start bantering and bandying words on the field but when foul language is involved, it simply becomes distasteful.
Even a normally reticent Sachin Tendulkar had a go at McGrath. This doesn't happen even in India-Pakistan encounters (except the More-Miandad incident) which are generally so highly electrified situations, all that is needed is a little excuse to start a major showdown.
I guess what I'm saying is that while i love the aussie attitude, the way they play the game, and most of their cricketers, i think they are bad losers and that is exactly where all this stems from. If i were to say that this is indeed what is to expected of people coming from generations of dangerous british convicts, thieves and rapists, then i'm sure all the aussies would be mad at me, as they ought to. I personally don't know any australians and some of my friends who do, indeed assure me that they are a very friendly lot who just don't necessarily come off as being respectful of tradition or orthodoxy. This whole incident of gavaskar talking crap could have simply been an instance of him starting these verbal bouts in order to unsettle the Aussies and it certainly looks like he has been successful on that count. While the aussies do this all the time before each series, why didn't they simply treat it as merely one such taunt and get along with their game?! it is because Sunny said something that hurt them as much as it does every time to their opponents when they start letting their big mouths off.
it is here that i think Gavaskar has the correct larger perspective. And while i don't generally agree with his comments, i think he is spot on regarding the larger question of using unparliamentary language in public display.

finally, as regards Lehmann's comment about Sunny, all i'd say in sweet Australian is, mate, who gives a f*** what you think?!