Sachin – a Sore Loser or Are the Australians?

Adam Gilchrist spoke his mind through the pen. But the reality is often stranger than fiction. As are some of the facts.

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That is really the question that should be asked. It was hard to find a smiling Australian face at Mohali. If Sachin Tendulkar was not available to shake hands, it was hard to find the exuberance on the Australian faces as they acknowledged they were beaten fair and square. So, does looking despondent after a loss make one a sore loser?

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As far as the entire tragic “monkeygate” goes, why is it that the Australians are not willing to let go while it was India that really tasted ignominy in the aftermath of that episode? If Sachin backtracked on his statements as Gilchrist claims, how does one explain Matthew Hayden getting involved or even Michael Clarke who was out of ear shot? Why, in the first place, did Andrew Symonds have to get involved when the altercation was between Harbhajan Singh and Brett Lee, the latter not even responding to Bhajji’s chatter?

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There is something very schoolboyish about this episode which is sad because it reduces a greater issue at large – one of sledging where the Australians have allowed everything in the name of “mental disintegration”. That they now cry foul over a trade they so skillfully and unwittingly imparted to the rest of the world but unable to digest it themselves seems too prolonged and ill tempered to be even allowed to get this far.

Hayden bats for Bhajji?

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Stranger still it is to hear Matthew Hayden say he admired Harbhajan’s spirit of the game (no less!). If it sincere, then Hayden must be appreciated for his big heartedness. It was not a less than a year ago when he is quoted as having spoken over the Australian radio as Harbhajan “was the same obnoxious little weed he always was.”

What about Gilchrist’s timing? As well executed as his shots, seem his salvos. How else does one explain that the new skipper of the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers suddenly finds his views aired for the knowledge of the public after Australia lose the Test in Mohali? Pure coincidence seems too far fetched a tale. Is this another attempt at the rather “innocent” art of mental disintegration?

Gilchrist may be doing the walking. But he is doing a lesser job convincing people about Sachin Tendulkar’s character than he is about the Australians unable to let go of the humiliating defeats they keep suffering at the hands of the Indians. Best be said to leave aside Tendulkar’s character and starting working on their own if the match in Delhi is to be a more even keeled affair.