Freedom of speech

During the Test series and in the tri-series before the World Cup, Virat Kohli was both guilty of and at the receiving end of verbal altercations with the Australians. (Source: Solaris Images)

On Tuesday Eden Park held its breath in nervousness, burst in euphoria but didn’t witness a single word in anger by the players during the titanic struggle between New Zealand and South Africa. Not one cuss word, not a single graceless moment, nothing slipped out in the heat of the moment.

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However, Sydney, the venue of Monkey-gate that threatened a diplomatic crisis between two countries in 2008, and set to host the semi-final between India and Australia on Thursday, isn’t likely to be as civilized as Eden Park.

Aggressive adolescence is one trait that the cricketers of India and Australia share. Where brashness and being rude to each other is worn like a badge of honour. Already, players from both teams have started to wag their tongue. Mitchell Johnson has said that he will sledge if David Warner doesn’t, James Faulkner has gone a step ahead and said if there isn’t sledging then there is some problem, and Rohit Sharma has talked about how Indians will be at their faces.

The two teams have recent and past history of ill-will. In Bangalore, during Australia’s last tour of India, the fuzzy line of sportsmanship spilled into gracelessness. Shane Watson was hurt and limping while batting and there came a point when Shikhar Dhawan, who had a running feud with Watson through that series, stopped a drive at covers, and started to hobble across, mocking Watson, who responded by waving his bat at him. And that was a rather inconsequential game in a bilateral series.

And the one on Thursday is anything but inconsequential. As the Australian all-rounder Faulkner put it: “It’s a semi-final, cut-throat, neither team will be backing down.” Rohit Sharma has hoped that “it doesn’t cross the line. We all know as professional cricketers there are boundaries, which we don’t need to cross. So, as long as it’s inside those boundaries, we’ll be fine”.

In these days of weak umpires, who are easily manipulated by strong players, if we get as close a game as the one at Eden Park, and it’s a world-cup semi-final between two teams with more than a few hot-heads, the line is going to get increasingly inhabited and blurred.

The greatest achievement of Australians is to make their condescension smell like approval. To be showered by their abuses — and that also involves their crowds — and come through with a performance should be seen as the approval, of coming of age of a player, and of true earning of respect.

A cuss of endearment, almost. It’s a long-standing tradition that has gained almost mythical status, built by willing opposition cricketers from around the world, who proudly wear the cusses and abuses. Often, in the past, cricketers from rest of the world have almost yearned to be termed ‘Australian’ by the Australians. That’s Australia’s achievement. On the other side, India are trying to develop a myth around their sledging. That they don’t initiate it and that they just react. The reverse of their marketing slogan of their world cup campaign “we won’t give it back’, then. It’s a shrewd move, and that branding is beginning to stick even if it isn’t strictly true. Often, Indians do start it.

Support for India

Even the crowd in both countries have quite a go at the players. Indian crowds aren’t all saintly as it’s sometimes portrayed and Australian crowds have never held themselves back.

“Kohli is a wa****,” was a popular chant during India’s recent Test series in Australia. An interesting dimension awaits us in this semi-final. In a 42,000 capacity stadium at Sydney Cricket Ground, more Indians have bought tickets than the Aussies. Sydney might just have the feel of Wankhede Stadium and how that plays out in terms of sledging remains to be seen.

‘Speak English’

So intense was the clash between David Warner and Rohit Sharma at the MCG in the recently concluded tri-series that umpires and other players had to intervene.

The heated verbal exchange could not be heard on the television feed, but Warner appeared to repeatedly say “speak English” to Rohit.

“When I went over to say something to him, he said something in their language and I said ‘speak English’ because, if you’re going to say something, understand that theoretically I cannot speak Hindi,”Warner had said.

The 28-year-old Warner was fined 50 per cent of his match fee.

Source:: Indian Express