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……!

Do not create another Controversy Mr Rajput, India have enough on their plate!

It was indeed funny to read a report in the Times of India, quoting Assistant Coach Lalchand Rajput in Sydney Morning Herald, that Yuvraj’s air of indifference was likely to cost him in a place in the middle order.

A similar report appeared in the Hindustan Times, titled ‘’Team upset with Yuvraj’s attitude’’ and it quoted the Newspaper, The Age.

The HT report said Yuvraj’s attitude during Melbourne ‘’infuriated the members of the Indian team.’’

Unfortunately, there was no quote from Yuvraj, not even a mention that the media tried to contact him. Now where does any of the reports mention what exactly was this attitude problem. For example, did he tell the other players to look at their own batting first before commenting on his (Yuvraj’s)! Or was there anything else.

Why malign a man (who will not reply due to disciplinary reasons), whose heroics at the World Cup helped India snatch it, and whose tremendous batting at Bangalore along with Ganguly saved India from a possible defeat. If you do not want to play him at Sydney, do it little more gracefully.

What is Yuvraj without attitude? And what is the problem with flaunting it! Only men with attitude can take on the Australians. The likes of Botham, Flintoff, Shastri and Harbhajan have shown it in the past.

And the point it, why should Rajput be talking to the Australian media about the attitude of the Indians, and play into their hand!

Rajput wants to have one-on-one with Yuvraj at Sydney, but has no problem in talking to the media on the issue even before that chat! That is strange.