MELBOURNE, Feb 26 (NNN-Bernama) — A simmering summer of conflict threatens to boil over again with Indian team management lodging a letter of complaint against the bullying tactics of Australian cricketers, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) news agency reports.
During a hearing in which match referee Jeff Crowe fined Ishant Sharma for his illegal sending off of Andrew Symonds, the Indians lodged the letter claiming its players were heavily provoked by the Australians during Sunday’s one-day international.
“The umpires, based on what they had seen in the middle, reported to the match referee about the incident,” Bimal Soni, the Indian team manager, told baggygreen.com.au
“Our plea was Symonds provocated [sic] Ishant and that’s why he did what he did. He [Crowe] promised he would be speaking with the Australian captain about the matter.”
The Indians stopped short of lodging an official complaint, saying they wanted to avoid the kind of hearing which divided the two nations over the Harbhajan Singh racial vilification case.
“We could have filed another complaint but we didn’t want to start another hearing,” Soni is quoted as saying.
“Instead we made the match referee aware that the Australians have provoked our players in the last two matches and cited specific instances, which is not good for our players.”
The Indians have not ruled out taking ‘befitting action” should the provocation continue and have considered calling ICC chief Malcolm Speed in to mediate.
Australian coach Tim Neilson has defended his players, suggesting that the Indians need to pay more attention to their on-field efforts.
“At the moment, as far as I can see, we are the only team that is in the finals. I said last week it might be time for them to start looking in their own backyard,” Nielson said.