The writer has just presented a caricature of Australians. It happens all over the world now. You have problem with some people... choose the worst about them and then as gross generalization paint EVERYONE as having all those characteristics. In US right wing media, its very common to portray the entire Muslim world as THEY, everyone is a suicide bomber etc etc.
Aussie media does the same. Having read their media, there was a guy in Sydney Morning Herald who ASSUMED that India has a caste issue in cricket and then proceeded to justify his premise by giving examples of Kambli etc, instead of better exploring the complex issue. Or the Australian (newspaper), portraying whole of India as effigy burning , racist idiots, by putting links to idiotic racist tee shirt designs being sold in India. I see lots of Indians here criticize the author of this article. I hope Aussies do the same on their media's websites.
I hope the educated people realize that there is not just black and white, but all shades of gray everywhere. Don't focus on the fringe elements and paint everyone with that color.
And for God's sake, don't make broad assumptions based on a game. Players on both sides are millionaires and their winning / losing affetcs their earnings a lot. So they will go hard at it. Doesn't mean their actions reflect the character of all their countrymen.
RE:too stereotypical
by ashish on Jan 27, 2008 09:36 PM
As an australian this article hurts me. I come here on this site again and again to post messages to say that above article is too generalized, biased, etc. But truth is that D V Sridharan have only said the truth and nothing but the truth.
RE:THE AUSTRALIAN
by Kerry Hadley on Jan 25, 2008 05:45 PM
there are mistakes in this post, symonds is not an aboriginee he is of west indian parentage, was adopted by english parents emigrated to australia when at the age of 3, and also Jason Gillespie was an aboriginal playing test cricket, and there was an all aboriginal team about the late 1800's early 1900s. now for the so called convicts, there are only three states where the convicts where sent, a very small proportion of the population where convicts. the rest where free settlers. australia's heritage actualy is of no concern to you, remember your history is littered with attrocities of your own, children made into beggars, abject poverty, caste system, the indian treatment of the muslim population by the hindu's was appalling specially seeing your country had to be partioned, marked by assignations of leaders. so your history is not a pretty picture, so if you don't want people throwing stones at you or your culture, history don't throw stones at others. or make sure you have your facts straight. you have no knowledge of the country or its people if you did you wouldn't make stupid factual errors like the writer of this article has.
RE:THE AUSTRALIAN
by Sai Ram on Jan 25, 2008 07:48 PM
You know Kerry, you are right in some ways. But remember, your brothers, the British came and made this country like what you are seeing now. No offence intended. But that is the fact.
RE:THE AUSTRALIAN
by Kerry Hadley on Jan 26, 2008 10:51 AM
to sai, as far as most australians not all, they do not necessarily consider britian as a brother more an alli,no offense intended but india allowed themselves to be conquered by the bristish for what 150 years? upto 1947 when they gained independence. but that is not the australian fault we are just as much victims as you guys are. but australia is a very mullti cultural country, which has diversity of religions, cultures, and a high degree of tolerance. we adore sport and on a whole a very fair people, I am sure there are in India who can say the same, but like in all countries quite a few who disgrace themselves and their people, their are two sides to every story. all I want is the vitriolic spite stopped. I understand things didn't go they way you wanted them too, but a lot of things don't go the way you want, so you learn to accept and move on. every other team has to.
RE:THE AUSTRALIAN
by on Jan 29, 2008 06:27 PM
Dear Kerry,
I don't agree with the gross generalistaions in the article above, nor do I question the Australian people and culture (I have no right to), I am sure they are a very nice people. However, I have found the behaviour of certain Australian cricketers very onjectionable. There have been instances where the spirit of sport has been replaced by a rather ugly desire to 'win'. Winning is not wrong, all of us play to win, but I guess it's the way we win that counts and on some ocassions the conduct of Australian cricketers has been questionable. Nonetheless, what has been written above in the article is an insensitive and incorrect portrayal of a people.
well, I am back with my tricks. I am anti-Indian and I do not like any comment on rediff. So I steal post messages using Indian ID. As you can see most recently I used two more IDs. raj, Srinivasan Krishna, and one unknown. Hope you will forgive me. Sorry guys I do not have family or friends. I just do this to abuse Indians. hope you understand.
RE:chris is back with his trick
by Srinivasan Krishna on Jan 20, 2008 09:43 AM
Give it a rest mate! In all this rubbish, and very stupid partisan views from both the country's press, the real issues tend to get buried. Fact remains, the match ref has shown himself to be incompetent in the extreme. If the umps made mistakes, then he could have pointed it out to them and asked them to up their standards. He could have refused to accept the complaint lodged & could have talked to the protogonists and asked them to cool it. harbhajan is no saint nor Symonds a paragon of virtue. But the galling gamemanship of calling someone racist, relly gets our ( Indian) goat. With all our predsiposition to 'fair skin' ( just visit indian matrimonial sites) and our history of ' caste system' , you will still find the average Indian decent, cultured and friendly. We as a nation have tried to change the historical damage done by the 'caste system' by giving reserved oppertunities to the oppressed in the last 50 yeras and when you visit India, you will not see nor feel the caste system. But the fact remains, economic inequality, in a democratic set up is by far a dream sequence, and that to many visitors to india kind of represent the ills of 'caste system'. Mike proctor deserves to be done away with and a rule should be made to ensure ' what happens in the field, stays in the field'. Indians are not racist by any yardstick. period. Curiously, i am not able to savour the Perth win, which would have been better without the Sydney stink.
RE:chris is back with his trick
by chris on Jan 21, 2008 06:40 AM
So you claim to be sensible yet still claim that calling a black man a monkey is not racist? And could you please explain how you made the leap from turban head making a racist remark to the whole of India being racist? That's quite a jump. India not being racist is rather hilarious none the less, after all your crowds are so respectful of the WI team right?
And would you care to explain exactly what Australia did that was unsporting in the Sydney test or how Proctor is in any way incompetent? Y'know without jumping to fallacies which are only considered facts in India among the effigy burners.
This Sridharan is one among those lousy writers who loose their way when they start writing. I have been going through many Australian dailies during the past few days and they have not given any blind support to their team. Admit Ponting & Co mis behaved a little bit and done some damange to the reputation of the great game and when the whole world told them that they have done a mistake, now it is our duty to give them the chance to correct their mistakes. We should not forget the fact that when Australians were here Sreesanth in particular and some of the spectators also misbehaved. There is no need to abuse Australians as a whole because of this incident. I think rediff should not publish such kind of articles.
RE:This article is unwanted.
by JM on Jan 20, 2008 04:51 AM
Why do you assume this article is about Ponting and cricket? Cricket has been barely mentioned in this article.
RE:This article is unwanted.
by chris on Jan 20, 2008 12:05 AM
on the other hand I agree that D V Sridharan has every right to publish true facts on rediff.
RE:This article is unwanted.
by murasu on Jan 20, 2008 09:18 AM
I agree with you. Just because of a few over Zealous Aussie cricketers there is no need to trash an entire nation. Indian crowd misbehaves lot more. Sreesanth embaraased the whole nation with his behaviour. Bajji is not exactly a saint. Bishan Singh Bedi rightly said he rolled like a chimpanzee after getting POnting out as if India won the series. I hope our cricketers behave like the seniors like Kumble, Dravid, VVS and Sachin who command a lot of respect. The youngsters Pathan , R.P. Singh and Ishanth behave very well and do us proud.
RE:This article is unwanted.
by chris on Jan 25, 2008 08:25 AM
Yup you are right. Indian team is much muchj better than Australian team both with cricket skill and in on and off field manners.
I am sad that , such scorn and misinformation is heaped on the austarlians.granted, some of them are pretty much colonial and very complexed, in general, the aussies are not bad blokes. They wantt to win, hold up their head in the sun, see more in common for their culture with the west than any other place as they are majority white skins. nothing wrong with that.They have worked hard to get the 'down under' hell hole, considered apt for convicts and outcasts, into a decent properous land, and made use of the natural resources. nothing wrong with that either. To me it is purely a cultural thing and we Indians take things too personally.Yes , i was absolutely disgusted to see we lost the Sydney test, where we had won many a session fair nad square, despite the blundering umpires. But, Mr Sridhar, your stinger is absolutely malicious and judgemental. I and am sure, my fellow Indians, will not accept what you have written. i am also disturbed that Rediffmail has thought it fit to post it. I have no choice but to apologise to the general lot of Austarlians and human beings. My advice to you is ' grow up' Jai Hind.
RE:To all Austarlians, We apologise for this article.
by MS on Jan 22, 2008 09:13 AM
In Chennai, they applaud foreign teams. While doing so, they look around to check if the world is watching them. They expect a bone thrown at them for their good ways. So much for some brownie points.
But when a Ranji team from neighbouring state visits them, they are at their parochial worst. No brownie points here, no?
RE:To all Austarlians, We apologise for this article.
by Chittur Subbaraman on Jan 20, 2008 08:29 PM
You have absolutely no idea of how the "errors" committed by the umpires in conjunction with false claims of catches by Ponting and Clarke and Gilchrist cost a nation the match. No record books are going to be erased about this match. It is an illgotten booty of the messy aussies and the more messy umpires. Illgotten wealth requires to be confiscated. If Pakistan captain can be banned for five matches for falsely claiming a catch, why should not Ponting be? Is Mike a partial Referee?
RE:To all Austarlians, We apologise for this article.
by Kerry Hadley on Jan 26, 2008 11:02 AM
to chittur, you are making an assumption that India would have won Sydney, I say that may not have happened at all cos if all blunders where not made, then tendulkar would not have made the 154 instead only 32 when plumb lb given not out. yes symonds would not have made his score nor would have ponting etc. etc. so the outcome could have been different not to your liking either. but all in all, India should have drawn that test instead they lost by allowing in the last 8 Min's and last over of the game lose 3 for 5 to a part time bowler who normally does not bowl very much at all. so India has to shoulder the responsibility that they lost a match that was unlosable. as much as it hurts that is the reality of it all, blaming others is a failure to accept reality. I like to say to srinvasan and others apology accepted and apoligies given, not all on either side are sore losers or dishonest.
RE:To all Austarlians, We apologise for this article.
by Srinivasan Krishna on Jan 21, 2008 01:21 AM
Absolutely agree. The umpiring was horrendous to say the least. But, remember the umps were neutral? One was a black west indian and the other an englishman? How could they have given a favorable decisions to aussie? If they are not crrupt, then if they gave decisions against us, our players must have done something wrong? maybe we mistreated Bucknor, when he visits india nad he holds a grudge. Mike proctor is odious and hd no business to be a match refree- period. ICC should sack him. By the way, there were many matches played in india in the past when the indian umps gave very bad decisions. that is part and parcel of the game. i am upset that we lost, and there is no justice in the result. but that is the way it goes.
RE:To all Austarlians, We apologise for this article.
by murasu on Jan 20, 2008 09:24 AM
Very well said Srinivasan. I have met lot of Australians and interacted with them. They are very friendly sportive and nice people. Every nation has a portion of history that they will not be proud of including India. I would also like to apologise to the Australian public.
RE:To all Austarlians, We apologise for this article.
by Crick fan on Jan 20, 2008 02:00 AM
Yes We apologise and request them to read it and accept our apology. Thanks
That article was a laugh from start to finish...as an Australian I can assure you it is ridden with mistruths and makes fanciful links and leaps of imagination normally found in comic books.
Most Australians I know love Indians and India and I would say 80% of the people I know are hoping for an Indian victory in Perth. And everyone here is disgusted with the behaviour of our national cricketers and thought India were 'robbed' in Sydney. I fail to see how this attitude, shared by just about every Australian, is innately unfair.
Indians shouldn't mix up the actions of our government with the intent of everyday Australians and only an idiot would state that our cricket side is representative of the rest of the country.
You people should really get your heads out of your arses, as the expression goes here. Australia is not like how this article portrays her to be and frankly most of the racism around here is actually carried on by the numbskull who wrote this bilge and the lemmings who post comments on this discussion board.
RE:Racists on rediff
by JM on Jan 19, 2008 02:28 PM
The writer is NOT saying cricketers are a mirror of the society but rather analyzing whats in Aussie history and mindset (that possibly makes the cricketers behave that way)
Aussie is a 3rd rated western country which "crow sticking peacock feathers and claiming to be a friend of peacock" is what the writer is saying Aussies are and he is 100% correct.
I would have had some respect for Aussies if their country behaved like a sovereign country rather than a "prison beeatch" for USA and UK.
RE:Racists on rediff
by murasu on Jan 20, 2008 09:30 AM
Did you read about how some media denigrated Hinduism for the Golfer Vijay singh made a silly statement about Anika Sorenstorm regarding her playing in the PGA tournament. It hurt us. So we should not denigrate a nation like Australia for the way some of their cricketer's agressive behaviour.
RE:Racists on rediff
by Srinivasan Krishna on Jan 19, 2008 05:38 PM
Hi Chris Goss Sincere indian apologies mate. The writer has gone overboard. Well, just remember India has population of 1.1 billion people and majority of them are 'fair minded' and people of great culture and history. Every society has their own pluses and minuses, but let me tell you, our socity, culture and people have more pluses than minuses. i am sure ( having known a few australians)in Australia, there are some high nose types, whose collective world knowledge could be scoopped up in a tea spoon, very like the writer of the offensive message. Still, mate we are not racial by any yardstick, as it was made out by team australia. That has got our goat, and not to forget some pretty ordinary umpiring to say the least in the syndney test. if you have ever been to India, you will not fail to notice the Indian hospitality and culture. Let it suffice, that we do not subscribe to the writers views at all.
RE:Racists on rediff
by Sayee P.S/ Jayaraman on Jan 21, 2008 07:23 PM
Common guys, first of all Its a sport. Lets not fight it out as if its a war. Being an Indian, I am very proud to see our kids imagining themselves as Sachin, Ganguly, Shane,Mc Grath,Brett Lee,Lara and play on the streets of nookes and corners of India. How many of us know that the small cricket clubs of villages in India are named as Shane warne CC, Waugh CC, Sachin CC, Lara eleven,Akram cricket coaching, Botham tigers, Fleming CC. How many of you guys posting rotten stuff on the blogs know that cricket matches of Ind OZ , Ind Pak, Ind SA, Ind Nz, etc are watched with awe by the cricket loving Indian Kids. Every action and gesture by the great players are emulated by the kids. The whole of cricket world has given so much happiness and bonding between nations. One or two bad experiences need not create such a rotten stuff on the blogs. Shame on all of you who speak your own filthy languages on a public forum. Let every one in the cricket fraternity sit together and sort out things smoothly. Lets try to bring back the glory & beauty of this game again. As Chriss says let us not not talk rubbish and blame entire australia., One cannot forget the new look and inspiration given to the game by the OZs in the mid 80s with their fantastic / magical way of TV coverage of the Benson Hedges tropy, from when a new dimension was given to the game. Common guys, we dont live for thousands of years to see the records. Lets us enjoy the game. Ofcourse every one needs fair play to enjoy the g
RE:Racists on rediff
by raj on Jan 19, 2008 02:48 PM
chris, you are in a minority. the australian team does not see it that way, the mainstream australian media have written for ponting's team. in short, the aussie blokes are quite a unit when it comes to the grand sledging behaviour. other than a few who really did opine like peter roebuck, everyone else sided with australia. worse , peter roebuck was criticized. to add insult to injury symonds released some statements just before the perth test. and then the aggression was shown dangling the shaun tait and bouncy track card, "look, we will get you legally with the ball, better be prepared for a few injuries" kinda of threat. in a normal game anyone saying fast track and fast bowler would mean intimidating in a mild way, but when the whole cahort goes up to remind indians, somethings' wrong. indians dont like australians anymore, and australians did no favours to themselves. the world opinion too are against australia. when nationalists in australia got real estate on leading newspapers, what do you expect local scribes to do ? sit back and relax ?
RE:Racists on rediff
by raj on Jan 19, 2008 04:09 PM
"harsh overseer on Jan 19, 2008 03:33 PM | Hide message I am an India and I live in Melbourne and I completely disagree with this article. It's misinformed and poorly written. How does one jump from making assumptions about a country's cricket playing practices, compare it it's foreign policy and then use it to assess nay generalise a citizen of that country is beyond me. I wish rediff would delete this article because it is very disgusting and makes me sad that an indian wrote it."
dude, this must be a reaction to the kind of steaming pile of dung thats been against india & its supposed financial clout which is supposed to be bad for world cricket.
the OZ board is the most powerful brd cos they win more than anyone else since the bradman years. they want to have it their way. sledging on steroids, and going out of control is also legal for them. they have polluted the spirit of the game more than anyone else. indians get punished more than anyone else in the game, and no wonder it shows in the nationalists newspapers in australia. its all very polished way of getting at an indian team thats totally down & out. we'd have very well won the sydney test. damn the OZ hostile arrogant sledging. i respect their cricketing prowess & their never say die attitude. champion outfit who will earn every body's respect? far far from it.
