Saturday, March 01, 2008

Not obnoxious after all !

The hue and cry over Matthew Hayden's comment has reached its optimum - perhaps keeping in line with the theme of the summer - anything coming from the mouth of an Aussie must be treated like Al-Jazeera's coverage of the Iraq War. A tad obnoxious to begin with. As a matter of fact, in my previous post - I talked about how Harbhajan Singh has been elevated to this epitome of Indian racialism or the Indian truth - but I wonder why no one is talking about his performances in Australia, which have been below par for all the sympathies he has been getting from the public and the jingo media. Thats where the coverage goes crooked - no one is willing to question his place in the team ? Why ?

In a Hindi channel recently, one of the experts pointed to the fact that Muttiah Muralitharan has been himself struggling to bag wickets in Australia. So, it is assumed that Harbhajan struggle too ? What has he done after landing in Australia ? Picked wickets ? Or made slanderous or libelous statements against the Australian team or some persons in particular ? What was that all about ? And what does he get ? A lucrative IPL contract from a man who heard him foul Symonds from the other end ! As an Indian myself, Harbhajan is almost an irritant. If you are in your senses, you wouldn't want him to succeed and pick wickets. An obnoxious character indeed.

We rejoiced his apish celebrations in the Canberra game - but why didn't anyone question it ? Did the Sri Lankan fans do abuse him ? They wont. They are the nicest set of fans to watch cricket with. Yet, the man has the heart, or the lack of it to put his tongue out and go on a savage bush-run. To sound frank, it was supererogatory.
Again, obnoxious - for the jingos, it must have been something gratifying - the onset of a new Indian team that doesn't bother to tow the line where it is needed.

So Haydos, I am with you on this - you hit the nail on the head when you called him a "little obnoxious weed." Well done mate. Someone had to do it one day, keeping in mind his nuisance value to the Indian team.

PS: I am not racist, and neither is the statement.

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