The Australians are headed back home after a heated tour of the Indian sub-continent. The one day series ended on a distasteful note with the ugly face of racism resurfacing, this time at the Wankhede in Mumbai. It is really unfortunate to see the Indian crowds behave the way they did at Vadodra and Mumbai, but what’s more disappointing is the crowd behavior at Mumbai. One hasn’t yet come out of the disgraceful affront of Sachin Tendulkar last year at the same venue, and now we have the Symonds incident.
Andrew Symonds was booed when he came in to bat, a ball later walked back to the pavilion and later at the post-match ceremony. Much of the jeering and racial gibberish was doled out by the seemingly educated sections of the crowd. Now, that puts a few things in perspective, one, Mumbai ain’t no more the city that flaunts a compassionate spirit, two, a people that can boo its own home-grown hero can boo anyone. Perhaps, it’s time to look at other cities which better display the Indian ethos and don’t ridicule their own image.
While mindless Indian fans counter the treatment meted out to the Aussies as only just given their aggression and use of unkind words on the field by them, but does that give us a license to racially abuse a sportsperson or for that matter anyone? Such people and the likes of Sreesanth need to realize that the best way to stand up and be counted is performance on the field.
One can only wonder if such an incident were to happen with an Indian player in Australia what would have been the reaction of a billion people, effigies would have been burnt all around, uproar in the parliament, not to forget, ‘headless chickens’ on various news channels would have spent hours dissecting the racial abuse of a hapless Indian player and how the developed world is plagued with racism.
Mumbai and its people have unfurled their ugly side. The Indian cricket board, ironically based in Mumbai, would do well to keep Mumbai off the cricketing calendar for sometime to come.
Andrew Symonds was booed when he came in to bat, a ball later walked back to the pavilion and later at the post-match ceremony. Much of the jeering and racial gibberish was doled out by the seemingly educated sections of the crowd. Now, that puts a few things in perspective, one, Mumbai ain’t no more the city that flaunts a compassionate spirit, two, a people that can boo its own home-grown hero can boo anyone. Perhaps, it’s time to look at other cities which better display the Indian ethos and don’t ridicule their own image.
While mindless Indian fans counter the treatment meted out to the Aussies as only just given their aggression and use of unkind words on the field by them, but does that give us a license to racially abuse a sportsperson or for that matter anyone? Such people and the likes of Sreesanth need to realize that the best way to stand up and be counted is performance on the field.
One can only wonder if such an incident were to happen with an Indian player in Australia what would have been the reaction of a billion people, effigies would have been burnt all around, uproar in the parliament, not to forget, ‘headless chickens’ on various news channels would have spent hours dissecting the racial abuse of a hapless Indian player and how the developed world is plagued with racism.
Mumbai and its people have unfurled their ugly side. The Indian cricket board, ironically based in Mumbai, would do well to keep Mumbai off the cricketing calendar for sometime to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment