Tales of Blind men in Indian Print Media Today

Blind men in white coats do India in in the Times of India, and Symonds, Bucknor guide Oz out of jail in HT, were the perfect front page (main page of the paper) reporting in Indian media on the cricketing developments of yesterday.

One can go on and on about asking the Indian players to fight it out, which of course they should do, but it must not stop journalists and administrators from taking the issue very seriously, and persistently.

HT wrote ‘’a spectacular batting assault by the Australian all rounder Andrew Symonds was sullied by association with one of the most grotesque umpiring decisions of recent times, as India had a precious advantage snatched and morale battered on the first day of the Second Test at Sydney.’’

How true. And the paper also quoted Ian Chappell as describing the umpiring as ‘’shocking’’. We all felt the same way.

The Times of India wrote that ‘’Bucknor has been hounding the Indians with poor decisions, from as far back as in 1992-93. He was involved in some bad decisions on the 2003-04 Australian tour.’’

But then the Indian Cricket administration is also to be blamed. They should have gone all out against this man, if they seriously believed that he only means harm to the Indian prospects. How can a team play confidently down under if they believe that a certain umpire is always going to favour the home side at critical stages. Do not count the reprieve he might give to the Indian batting now. The damage has already been done.

There was nothing on the controversy on the main page in the Indian Express and the Hindu. A pity because the subject had generated such an outrage among the media and the fans yesterday.

And if Indian batting does click in the first innings, players, writers and fans will keep thinking on what could have been the fate of the series had……!