Timothy David
Paine sucks !! .. .. but there are other
gentle Aussies too !!!
An abrupt end to IPL did
not only stop the interesting tournament but also added more woes. A total of
36 Australians – 14 players, 11 coaches, four commentators,
two umpires and five support staff, plus one New Zealand commentator who is an
Australian resident – all faced the problem as Aussie PM suspended air travel
and threatened that they could face huge fine as also incarceration if they
enter !! Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting felt
being outside the bubble was more threatening.
.. .. meantime Tim Paine is exhibiting rare
analyzing skills that makes all IPL Team owners run behind to make him their ‘talent coach’ [Result analyser and Justifier] for finding out
reasons justifying their loss !!
Australians
are well known for their sledging ~ they
have tormented visiting teams with abuses, threats and slanders yet few times
they too have been out-smarted. The
exchanges between Tim Paine and Rishab Pant were seen as comic banters,
eventually ending with Pant fulfilling the request by baby-sitting ! Ross
Taylor survived a difficult LBW claim and Paine went sleding : "I've seen him hit on the pad by
(Englishman Stuart) Broad in New Zealand, hit him middle stump. He knows the
bloke in the (video review) truck."
- that was Paine’s way of letting Ross Taylor know he was a lucky, lucky
Black Cap for surviving a massive lbw shout at the MGC.
Down under, when
India toured – the die was cast ! .. .. most media had created news-stories
condemning and deploring India – after it all some pundits had predicted a 0-4
whitewash, especially after that nadir 36 !
Australia won the
first Test easily after bowling India out for 36 in the second innings in
India, but the tourists responded by levelling the series in India. Having eked
out a draw in Sydney, India sensationally chased down 329 on the final day in
Brisbane to claim a remarkable three-wicket win to win the series. India’s
series win – their second consecutive Down Under – was made all the more
incredible by the fact Virat Kohli missed the final three Tests of the series
and they were missing up to half-a-dozen first XI players, and had trouble in
putting 11 fit men on field.
Aussies would call it
‘playing hard’ – to them winning is the only thing ! – they would sledge, push,
try to unsettle, talk, shout, resort to everything .. Steve Smith’s act can be
termed cheating .. nothing new from a person whose brain fades, resorts to
sandpapers and scuffles crease !!
Australians were clearly getting
desperate in their quest for victory in the Sydney Test and the proof of that
came in the unsportsmanlike behaviour of former captain Steve Smith and the
continued banter of Captain Tim Paine. An incident came to light on Monday when
Steve Smith was caught on the stump camera scuffing up the batsman's guard on
purpose during the drinks break in the first session.
In between,
Paine told Ashwin he can't wait to see
him in the fourth Test at the Gabba, which is supposed to be quicker. Ashwin
told him he can't wait to see Paine in
India, which might end up being his last series. Can Paine be sure he will even
make it to India? .. Paine retorted, he
has more friends in India !! in the end – his performance failed.
Tim Paine called his performance behind the stumps on the final day at the SCG
as one of his worst with the gloves, as three dropped chances played a
significant part in India managing to salvage a draw by losing just three
wickets in 97 overs. Paine spilled Rishabh Pant on 3 and 56, both outside edges
off Nathan Lyon, and then deep in the final session grassed another chance
offered by Hanuma Vihari when he dived across in front of slip. While there
were only 8.1 overs left at that point, had the catch been taken it would have
given Australia one final chance to target the lower order which would have
included an injured Ravindra Jadeja, who looked ready to bat despite a
dislocated thumb.
Paine was
heard calling Ashwin a “d***head” and a “goose”, saying “at least my teammates
like me” and “(Matthew Wade) has got more Indian friends than you do”. Ponting suggested Paine was already feeling sour
grapes as India lasted four sessions for the loss of just five wickets.
Recently, coach Justin Langer, emphatically put an end
to the debate surrounding the biggest talking point coming out of the
Australian summer, where Paine’s men lost 2-1 to India’s “third XI”. Joining
Fox Cricket’s The Road to the Ashes Podcast, Langer, as he often did during his
playing days in a star-studded side including Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne,
was silently sitting back listening to Paine’s position being debated. But it
was when Steve Smith and Pat Cummins had their names branded about as alternatives
that Langer interjected. The debate surrounding whether Paine should, first,
continue to captain Australia and, secondly, who is his successor intensified
in recent months following their shock series loss to India at home.
Paine also came under fire
for his sledging during the third Test, while his glovework wasn’t as strong as
usual after putting down a number of tough chances throughout the series.Former
England Ashes winning captain Vaughan said Paine’s record remained strong, but
his recent inability to lead Australia to victories on the final day would be
playing on his mind and an aspect which would be targeted.
For all that –
what could be the reason. Great
mind-analyst gentleman Australia captain Tim Paine has said his side allowed
themselves to be distracted by India's
"sideshows" during the intense 4-Test
series which the visitors won in a dramatic fashion earlier this year.
Paine, speaking to the press in Australia on Thursday, pointed fingers at reports of India unwilling to go to Brisbane for the final Test as one of their efforts to distract the host team. While there was speculation about India's reluctance over quarantine rules in Brisbane, none of the players or the team management said they would not travel to Queensland. Eventually, the final Test went ahead at the Gabba only to see Australia losing their fortress. "Part of the challenge of playing against India is they're very good at niggling you and trying to distract you with stuff that doesn't really matter and there were times in that series where we fell for that,"Tim Paine said, as quoted by news.com.au.
After
winning the series in Australia, India returned home to a hero's welcome. They
lost the first of a 4-Test series against England at home but bounced back to
win the series 3-1 and book a place in the final of the World Test
Championship. Virat Kohli's men will travel to England in the first week of
June and complete the mandatory quarantine period before taking on New Zealand
in the World Test Championship final in Southampton from June 18. Meantime, Paine has found out the reason for
their defeat – India’s sideshow ! .. .. Good Mate ! – play it your own way and
scout whether any IPL team especially Sun Risers would employ you as a ‘fail-strategy
analyst’.
In banter too, Pant went
one-up. During the test - when
off-spinner Washington Sundar was bowling, Rishabh Pant shouted from behind the
stumps when Paine came to strike and said, "Aise web phenko web (Throw a
web like this)" and started singing the famous Indian Spiderman song,
"Spiderman, Spiderman" in the
same tone, as it could be clearly heard from the stump mic.
Before concluding,
if by any chance, you have formed any opinion about Aussies, do change it as –
there are people like Big Matthew Hayden – who sometime back spake thus !!
(partially extracted)
I have
been visiting India for over a decade now and have travelled all over the
country, especially Tamil Nadu which I consider my “spiritual home”. I have always had the
highest respect for the leaders and public officials who are entrusted with the
task of running such a diverse and vast country. Wherever I went, the people greeted me with
love and affection, for which I remain in their debt. I can proudly claim that
I have seen India up close over the years and that is why my heart bleeds to
see it not only in agony at the moment, but also for the bad press that has
been hurled at it by those who I am not sure spend any time here to understand
India, its people and their myriad challenges.
As a
cricketer and lover of the game, I have maintained my association with the sport
which has allowed me to come to India to cover the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Many of my fellow countrymen have also been playing in the IPL for years. In
this context, at a time when the world has been shutting doors on India and
lambasting the Government, I thought of sharing my thoughts while in India, to
give a perspective not available to those sitting thousands of miles away.
I am
not a data person, but some of the figures I gathered from some of the media
reports are astonishing. India has already vaccinated over 160 million people
(five times the population of Australia) and has been conducting 1.3 million
tests a day. The point I am making is not to overlook the sheer vast numbers
and the challenges associated with it.
When one
conjures up thoughts of India, a singular word comes to mind. Incredible; a
word ivilizatio by the Indian Tourism slogan, “Incredible India”. Even now, being caught in the political crossfire of the Scott
Morrison Government’s decision to temporarily ban the travel to Australia,
nothing has changed my mind about this ancient ivilization. It’s true, my remuneration is significant
and, yes, it pays my family’s bills. More broadly, however, I have a deep
connection to Mother India which docks into my life’s mission: To connect
people and organisations on purpose and strategy. My purpose in supporting the
IPL this season was to provide a welcome relief to the monotony of extended
periods of partial or hard lockdown. Every evening from 6.30 pm, cricket
lovers, and let me tell you there are a few, went online or turned on the
television to watch their favourite franchise battle.
As a
genuine lover of the game since I was four years old, my voice, full of
excitement, helps narrate our great game by bringing an authentic positive view
to the cricket community. Cricket, as so often throughout history, has been and
is the silver lining to our COVID cloud. The cricketers, especially in the IPL,
have understandably been soft targets of the media and, because of their
contractual obligations, cannot defend themselves.
It makes
all the more important for people such as me, who have once been in a similar
situation but can now from the outside not only share a “player’s perspective”
but also speak up for them. India is a rich ivilization which has very few
parallels in the world and, in its hour of need, the least we can do is to
appreciate its cultural, regional, linguistic, human development and other
complexities before passing any judgement on it.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
14.5.2021.
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