Symonds warns Indians of backlash

MELBOURNE: Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds has added fuel to his simmering duel with Indians by describing the ongoing tour as “hostile” and warning the team of a backlash when it tours Down Under this year.

Symonds, who is engaged in a war of words with the hosts since the seven-match series began, said he knew India was “never an easy place to tour, but I am surprised how hostile it has been”.

The all rounder, on his fifth tour of India, said the ‘World Twenty20 champions’ still had a lot to prove and were set for a searing summer in Australia.

“They’re saying they’ve built up this new Indian team, but we’ll see how much they’ve changed at the end of our summer,” he was quoted as saying by the ‘Sunday Telegraph’.

“We have had the edge on them here and we will get them again in Australia this summer. They’ve beaten us in a Twenty20 game and one one-dayer in four years. You can’t gauge much on that, but we’ll see how this so-called new Indian team goes on our soil,” he said.

On the crowd making ‘monkey chants’ at him during the fifth one-dayer in Vadodara, he said “I don’t know what is going to transpire from what happened to me the other day.

“I am a pretty liberal sort of bloke. But racism is a big issue in world sport, not just cricket. It is a sensitive issue and guys have been made an example of in the past, but what do you do in this instance if it’s coming from the crowd?

“I’m not allowed to comment on exactly what went on, but I’m not the most deadly serious bloke. Life goes on.”

Let a private cricket league bloom

Cricket has become the second most popular sport in the world and is the dominant sport in South Asian countries. Cricket’s popularity is an opportunity for India to grow the nation’s service sector.

As an economy develops economically, the share of the sports, entertainment, and leisure industry soars. Sports leagues are multi-billion dollar franchises that generate not only income directly from sports, but also generate tourism, auxiliary businesses, jobs and revenue. In the United States the overall revenues for the National Football League (NFL), MLB (Major League Baseball) and National Baseball Association (NBA) are tens of billions of dollars. Experience across the globe suggest a strong latent demand for sports entertainment in India. What better way to realise this demand than to facilitate private cricket leagues?

The world’s most affluent cricket board, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has for long enjoyed a monopoly on all cricket-related actions in India. Founded in 1929, the BCCI has complete control over the selection of players, umpires and officials who represent India in international cricket events. After the tremendous success of the Twenty20 world cup, it might seem BCCI need not do anything more. Such complacency would be unfortunate. The potential to provide entertainment is boundless and held back only by the limited imagination.

The potential, however, won’t be unlocked unless privately owned, vigorously competitive teams organise themselves into a cricket league playing a large number of games in various cities in the Indian subcontinent. Whether such a league is a reincarnation and transformation of BCCI or a newly-formed league, e.g., the Indian Cricket League (ICL) is moot. What’s important is that competitive league cricket becomes a reality in India and that competition to develop a successful cricket league is facilitated, not subverted by the BCCI or the government.

Cricket is India’s national obsession. Schoolboys play it in midsummer heat. Offices ‘unofficially’ allow early going and late-coming if there is an important match on. That is for the national team. But ask the average Indian who won the last local first division league in his city, or to name the state Ranji squad, chances are you’ll come up blank.

Why should this be so? A Manchester United soccer team’s supporter would be able to name players of his club and national side. An LA Lakers basketball fan, or NY Yankees baseball fan, would not be caught out. Indeed, where sports have been promoted well, and marketed successfully, the fans have their thrills, the players their earnings, and clubs their profits. In India, however, the only winners seem to be the BCCI, and some player’s agents!

In part, this is British colonial legacy, when cricket was a ‘gentleman’s game’ to be unsullied by professionals, and untarnished by modern management methods. In Kolkata, the erstwhile capital of the British Raj, the sprawling Maidan is dotted with small, often worn down, tents and structure of clubs, with quaint names like Wari, Greer, George Telegraph, Aryans — nearly each has a first division side in cricket and football. Each is affiliated and has voting rights to select the state body, which administers the game in the state, and votes in turn for the national body, i.e., BCCI or AIFA, or IHF.

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BCCI didn’t receive letter from ICC: Shetty

The BCCI on Sunday said it had not yet received any letter from the International Cricket Council demanding an explanation on the alleged racist chants against Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds in Vadodara.

“We have not yet received any letter from the ICC,” said BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty from Mumbai.

When told that ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed had posted a letter on their official website which said the game’s world governing body had written to the BCCI asking for their comments on the issue in the light of media reports, Shetty said “they may have said anything but we have not received any letter from them yet.”

Symonds had complained of ‘monkey chants’ from a section of the Vadodara crowd when he was fielding on the boundary but Cricket Australia had refused to lodge an official complaint and left the matter for the BCCI to handle.

Shetty, however, hit out at Symonds for his remarks in the Australian media on the awards given to Indian cricketers after their Twenty20 World Cup win.

“He does not need to make comment on what we do,” he said referring to Symonds remarks that the Indian cricketers were treated like princes.

“Our blokes thought it was over the top. Some of the things their players have been given and the way they are treated, it’s like they are rock stars and princes.

“The Indian government gave them a heap of money. Yuvraj Singh got a Porsche. Blokes are getting houses and blocks of land,” Symonds told the ‘Sunday Telegraph’.

FLINTOFF FACING LONG LAY-OFF

Coach Peter Moores does not expect Andrew Flintoff to be back in action for England until next summer at the earliest.

The 29-year-old has just undergone a fourth operation on his troublesome left ankle.

The Lancashire all-rounder travelled to Holland for the procedure, which was performed by leading surgeon Professor Niek van Dijk, who removed fragments of bone which were pressing on a tendon.

Flintoff missed the whole of summer 2007, barring the end-of-season one-day series against India, and was then clearly in discomfort when bowling during the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa.

Moores – whose side have just secured victory in the one-day series in Sri Lanka – maintains Flintoff will not be rushed back into action until he is ready and “pain free”.

“There has been a positive from the operation (which) is the fact they found something,” Moores told BBC Radio 5Live’s Sportsweek programme.

“It has been really frustrating for Andrew over the last two months that he had pain, but they did not really know what it was.

“They all seem positive it has gone well and that he has a great chance to make a full recovery.

“Hopefully we can just support Andrew and get him fit back playing for England.

“We just have to wait and see that the whole thing has gone well.

“Andrew went into that operation so he could play with that ankle and still play effectively.

“We want Andrew Flintoff playing the sort of cricket we know he can and to enjoy that pain free.

“All the reports I have heard off the medical team have been really positive.”

Moores, though, maintained: “I do not want to put a time frame on it because it is not something we want to rush and want to make sure it is right.

“We want to get him fit to play and in the right form.

“At the moment there is the target of getting back for the domestic summer in England, and hopefully that will go well.

“There will be a period of rehabilitation he will have to go through, building the strength up and so on and we will keep an eye on the progress.”

Sir Ian Botham has claimed Flintoff should change his bowling action to limit future ankle problems.

England have just appointed Ottis Gibson as their full-time bowling coach after the team’s one-day success in Sri Lanka.

Moores, though, rejected notions they would now be pressing for “wholesale changes” to Flintoff’s approach.

He said: “There is not any evidence that would make the ankle feel better anyway. The idea is to get the ankle fit and stronger. Andrew can bowl with the action he has got.

“Foot position, which is talked about a lot, Andrew can alter that himself so it’s slightly more aligned anyway, and he did that during the Twenty20 series anyway.

“But they are all things which can be looked at later on.

“At the moment, the main thing is to get Andrew fit and back on the field.”

Botham, though, believes changing Flintoff’s action would have great benefit.

“I think Andrew is worried about it, and quite rightly,” he told the programme.

“What he is going to have to do is straighten that front foot up and get it almost chest-on.

“That will not affect him too much because he reverses the ball.

“If he can do that, then I think we can get a bit more out of Freddie – but the ankle is a real worry.”

Twenty20 is bad for youngsters, says Gaekwad

Former India cricket coach and opening batsman Anshuman Gaekwad took a dig at the newest form of the game saying that Twenty20 was bad for youngsters.

“Twenty20 is not meant for youngsters. For youngsters it is very important to have their basics right. In Twenty20 cricket you don’t need to have your basics right because you don’t need to play cricketing shots to score runs,” Gaekwad said on Friday.

“It is a game for the mass and not the class. For youngsters my advice will be to focus on Test cricket. Players who are doing well in Twenty20 are those who have proved themselves in Test and One-day cricket,” the former Indian coach said.

“The real test of talent lies in Test cricket. ODIs are also an improvisation of Test cricket. In ODIs you have to play pure cricketing shots if you have to succeed,” said Gaekwad, who is the son of former Test captain Dattajirao Kishnarao.

Gaekwad, who has the slowest double century record to his name, also criticised the new initiatives taken by different bodies to promote cricket at the grassroots level by organising Twenty20 tournaments.

“It is a wrong way to promote cricket at the grassroots level. This will have a negative effect on the game,” he said.

The former India coach seemed to have been impressed by newly appointed captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who led the nation to victory in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship.

“Dhoni has all the ingredients of a good captain. The only thing he lacks is experience. I think he should be given more time to mature,” he said.

Gaekwad rubbished claims that the Indian team was suffering from a hangover from the Twenty20 win, which has resulted in three losses in the ongoing seven-match series.

“I would have agreed to it, but after seeing India winning in Chandigarh, I am not ready to buy that theory. The only problem is that we are playing badly against a tough opposition like Australia,” he said.

On the role of three seniors, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, the former India coach said: “They have proved their critics wrong. They have been the most consistent performers in the team. Let the youngsters prove themselves and then challenge the three seniors.”

Australia Beats India by 18 Runs to Clinch 1-Day Cricket Series

Australia beat India by 18 runs in the sixth one-day cricket international in Nagpur to seal the seven-match series 4-1.Andrew Symonds hit an unbeaten 107 runs in 88 balls, with nine fours and four sixes, as his team totaled 317-8 in its allotted 50 overs.

In reply, Sourav Ganguly got 86, Sachin Tendulkar 72 and Robin Uthappa 44 as India could only total 299-7. Left-arm spinner Brad Hogg took 4-49.

The opening match in the series was abandoned because of rain.