Sparks are flying. A lot has been written in the last couple of days why this Australian cricket team should be banished from the face of this earth. Newspapers and bloggers have said why Symonds deserves to be called what he says he was called by Harbhajan. It is another matter that one reporter in a national newspaper wrote there was a rumour that Harbhajan in fact said 'teri maa ki' and it was interpreted by Symonds as what he thought it was. Maybe, he is obsessed with a particular racial taunt. On the pitch, the teams call each other far worse things that 'teri maa ki', if it was said, is considered very mild. They are supposed to be calling each other sob, b, and whatever else that comes out of their mouth in the spur of the moment. Given all this, dubbing all Australians as descendants of erstwhile criminals and hence the behavior of the present Australian cricket team is stretching it too far. I still remember Arun Shourie writing in India Today at the height of 1984 sikh riots that simply because the killers belonged to a particular community, the whole community cannot be targeted as killers, in the same way all Hindus could not have been branded as killers just because Nathuram Godse happened to be a Hindu. In fact, the Australians, as a nation, have given a 'thumbs down' to their cricket team in polls conducted by Aussie newspapers.

This Australian cricket team is a bunch of bad losers and cannot take it easy when they get it back from the opponents, whether it is defeat in a game or mouthful from the opposite numbers. They were the ones who started this game of hurling abuses called sledging but they cannot stand it when it is given back to them. Remember the way Steve Waugh went around pontificating when Ganguly let a few sparks fly on the pitch during the last tour down under? They almost came close to losing the series. It was due to the complicity of raingods that they were saved the blushes. Ponting has taken it to another level but the pattern is the same. And Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson played Gods this time around. The less said about the umpires, the better. One only hopes that another rumour reported in a national newspaper that the match could have been fixed because a lot of money was at stake in wagers that Australia will complete its 16th straight win, is not true. Taylor, before Waugh, led the Australian team admirably but he didn't need to resort to such cheap tactics. Complaining to the umpires and the match officials like school kids... McGrath and Warne belonged to the old school and appeared insulated throughout their career. Stuart Clark stands out in the present bunch. He bowls exactly like McGrath and appears to behave as dignified as the original Mr Perfect.

If you analyze why they behave like they are beyond ordinary mortals that they think the other teams consist of, is because they have not been seriously challenged for quite a while, whether on field by a quality opposition or in the slanging match. They have become so arrogant over a period of time that they feel they can do anything and get away with it. Symonds repeatedly abused Sreesanth and Harbhajan during their recent India tour and then went on to complain to the match officials against the two players. They scared BCCI and the Indian team to force them to hide Sreesanth and hatched a plan to tackle Harbhajan in Australia. Ponting has become a Harbhajan bunny but he cannot accept that. Don't you talk about accepting it gracefully. Gracefulness not part of his great personality. Contrast this with the behavior of the mighty Windies 70s and 80s. They spew venom with the ball and hard-hitting with the bat. But they played by the spirit of the game. Viv Richards is still my hero.

What has gone wrong with the Australian cricket team? Because they have not been challenged, they feel they are invincible in every sense of the word. When they threatened Muralidharan with dire consequences some years back when they could not play his spin, the Sri Lankan team hid him in the backyard of Jaffna and the team went to Australia without Muralidharan. When Steve Waugh spoke stupid things about Ganguly, we sacked him as captain. When Sreesanth was involved in that spat with Symonds, we wrote in the newspaper columns about why he should consult a shrink to correct his behavior. We even interviewed Sreesanth's brother to probe about possible disturbed childhood of Sreesanth. As I wrote in an earlier post, that made great copy but aided in emboldening the Australian cricket team to go from bad to worse in their on-field conduct. So, Ponting grounds the ball and appeals for Dhoni's wicket. Gilchrist catches the ball off Rahul's pads and appeals successfully. Ditto for Michael Clark with Ganguly's wicket. The point is that this Australian cricket team is stretching all the limits, as Ponting himself said yesterday, basically because no one has called their bluff so far. That is plain and simple. Every team has been in awe of the Australian team for quite a while, that they now feel that there is no limit for them.

How do we bell this pussy cat? Tell them to surrender their 2007 World Cup that is tainted with the squash ball that Gilchrist used in his glove while batting. Look at the hard figures from that World Cup 2007 final. Gilchrist scored 149 off 104 balls with 13 fours and 8 sixes. He kept thumping the ball all over the park and the poor Sri Lankans did not know what befell them. Gilchrist himself would later tell that the squeeze and release of the squash ball in his glove gave his bat that extra lift and allowed him to hit straighter. Using such an unfair tactic was not just unethical but it was also illegal because ICC, match officials, umpires, the Sri Lankans were all unaware of it.The cricket boards of all the cricket playing nations must unite on this issue and force ICC to strip Australia of the title. We have seen in the Steve Bucknor episode that ICC can be made to capitulate when faced with solid evidence or the lack of it. If Adam Gilchrist had never told the world that he used a squash ball in his glove, none of us would have known about. Look at the brazen manner in which he announced and no one, including the Sri Lankan cricket team and/or their board and ICC, protested about it. What Gilchrist did was grossly unfair to the Sri Lankans and at this length of time, no one is going to accept if it is said that none, including Ponting, Buchanan, CA and the other players of the Australian cricket team, knew about it except Gilchrist himself. Such victory tainted by unfair means is like pumping bullets into a dead tiger and claiming a kill. Make no mistake, this Australian team of Ponting and his boys can be trusted to do exactly that.

If any of your would like to ICC on this, here is their email address: enquiry@icc-cricket.com I would request each and everyone who wants to write to ICC to use temperate language and make a simple appeal to ICC to withdraw the World Cup 2007 title from Australian Cricket Team.