The way you have gone hammer and tongs to prove a point is quite unnecessary seeing what has happened and developed since then. Situations are tense or made more tense by people like our esteemed author here. Take the example of the Sri Lankans, they accepted the apology. They get the kudos for it. Always be magnanimous in victory or defeat and others will respect you. You do not need to prove anything if you are good ... like Murali!
I have travelled a lot and have found that the Australian is the worst person in my book. They are the least mannered and most uncultured. Lehmann's outburst does not surprise me.
Maybe Lehman blurted out something in the heat of the moment, but then there is nothing wrong either in being punished too. Sachin was punished for ball tampering doesn't mean he's a tamperer. He only committed a mistake. But punishment is a must else these evils tend to grow. I for one would not want to watch a sport where someone can make a racist remark and get away with it even if it is in the heat of the moment. I don't really want to see a player abuse another just because its a sport because I would like to imbibe in my children the spirit of sport without them allowed to think that it is fashionable to be hurtful. Maybe it was unfortunate for Lehmann to be punished so severely but on the other hand it provides an opportunity for much more. It provides a lesson to every sports person that racism is not permitted in a sporting context. It also provides each individual to set higher moral standards for himself / herself as we all tend to identify ourselves in our favourite sports person.
If slanging and other things like that count as things that a "professional" cricketer can do [killer instinct!], the age of sportsmanship, of magnanimous sportsmen like Walsh, seems to have passed. Why mourn now that these same cricketers have grown to be so UN-sportsman like !
Racism should be eradicated not only at the levels of players but also at the level of officials/cricket authorities.
That fact that Indian cricketers had to face punishment in SA for vociferous appealing and their south african counterperts got away (and always get away) with it can be viewed as an act of racial discrimination by we indians.
