Should 'Team India' call-off Australian Tour?

It seems, as Australian Team members were waiting earnestly for these moments and craving for 'Team India' to visit their motherland to show their revenge after a so-called bitter tour of India 2 months back. It's a no-secret affair that Australian Team (read Ricky Ponting) fears 'Team India' more than any other Test playing nation. And the distressing emotion which was arousing by the impending danger from 'Team India' especially Bhajji & Kumble, worked as a catalyst for them to start playing Cricket in an unprofessional way & non-gentleman manner and which turned the Australian Cricketers from Professionals to Wild Dogs!

Now, the second Test Cricket played at Sydney has been lost by Team India but they had clearly been outplaying Australian Team in each part of the game. It's known to entire cricketing world that Team India lost because of some biased & unfair decisions given by both the umpires and an opinion has been airing on that Steve Bucknor is an in-competent umpire. Both the umpires, Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson should be called to account for their poor umpiring. Even in an unexpected show of solidarity, the Australian media rallied behind the Indian team, saying poor umpiring proved to be their nemesis and the least they deserved was a draw. Australian media is terming the behaviour of their own players as "unacceptable" and calling the standard of umpiring as poor which left a bitter taste in the mouth. Team India has been dubbed. The ridiculous deed done by the umpires was that in the world of technologically sound cricket, they didn't bother to consult the TV Umpire in some critical situations. Especially, Mark Benson asking Ricky Ponting whether Michael Clark has grounded the ball while catching out Sourav Ganguly! He's no right to ask a fielding captain or a player before giving a decision. It would have been better if he had consulted the leg-umpire at least. Had the decisions -even 50% of the decisions- given in a proper & unbiased manner, the reslut of the match would have been different somehow, draw in least manner. We've been witnessing some moments when wrong decisions have been given by the umpires. Considering that they're also human beings, we've forgotten the blunders. But the Sydney Test gave us some unforgettable tastes of mouth which're in no way possible to digest.

The biggest bitterness what this match has given us is that Off-Spinner Harbhajan Singh has been banned for three matches after the ICC Match Referee Mike Procter upheld the Australian charge that he had allegedly used racial abuses against all-rounder Andrew Symonds. Procter gave a marathon six-and-a-half hour hearing to Harbhajan, who denied the charge and was supported by skipper Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, manager Chetan Chauhan and media manager M V Sridhar during the deliberations.
Procter also heard Symonds, who was backed by Australian captain Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke along with team manager Steve Bernard, who attended the hearing to testify against the Indian spinner.
The hardest point here to believe is of match referee who's 'deliberately' given verdict against Bhajji based on the allegations made by Australian Team. He didn't even considered the testimony of Cricketing Maestro Sachin Tendulkar who's aggresively backing Bhajji saying that he's absolutely innocent. Sachin is believed to be a gentleman cricketer who never discriminates b/w fellow players & opponents and whose gamesmanship is always appreciated in cricketing circles. Hasn't he rediculously been sidelined in the said case?

The interesting point which needs to be highlighted here in this case is that the video footages being shown in the news channels clearly shows that when argument was taking place b/w Bhajji & Symonds, there were interestingly only two players witnessing the incidence close enough- Sachin Tendulkar & Mathew Hadden. Now the question arises here is that- "Isn't it the duty of match referee to consider the testimony of prime witnesses when there is no evidence available which substantiates the alleged remarks during the deliberations to justify the position of complianant?" The match referee is trusting the words of Australian players more advisedly than being a true match referee by justifying his position clearly.

Now, BCCI has strongly opposed the judgement and has appealed infront of ICC to reconsider the cases and has asked the Team India to stay back at Sydney untill the decision is taken further on their appeal and Bhajji is reinstated. BCCI has made it clear that if Bhajji is not reinstated, they may think even to call-off the Australian tour. Now the most significant question here is- "Will the ICC consider the power of BCCI in world cricket while hearing?" If not then it's now our turn to show the world cricket the power which we posses as BCCI. The only solution remains here is to abandon the ongoing tour if the judgement goes against us and let the Australians know that we control & run the world cricket by the synergy & power of money.

Sunil Gavaskar, being the chairman of technical committee and selection pannel for umpires in ICC has to strongly put forward the views of each Indian infront of ICC. The whole nation now expects a brave move from BCCI and there is no turning back as well. Hope the BCCI will not be letting us down in this case as the pride of India is really at stake!

Chak De India!!!

Regrds,
Remmish Gupta

शुभ कामना!

नव वर्ष सुखमय हो,
मंगलमय हो, यह शुभ-कामना हमारी है।
सफल हों जीवन के हर पहलु में आप,
यह हार्दिक मंगल-कामना हमारी है॥

न निराश हों कभी क्षणिकाओं से,
असफलताओं से, अनियमितताओं से।
न हों कभी परेशां, जीवन में बाधाओं से,
पर्वत रूपी आपदाओं से, विपदाओं से॥

मंजिल हो आपकी ज़मीं पर आशियाँ
और फलक पर सितारों के बीच।
नव अवसर हो हर सुप्रभात के साथ,
मंजिल तक बेअटक आपका सफर हो॥

ख्वाबों के काफिले को सहेजकर इस ज़मीं पर,
फिर इक नया अविष्कार करना है आपको।
गर्व हो इस ज़मीं को भी आप पर,
फिर कुछ ऐसा कर गुजरना है आपको।।।

नव वर्ष कि इन्हीं हार्दिक शुभ एवं मंगल कामनाओं के साथ,
आपका ही,

रेमिश गुप्ता