Of Andrew Symonds, and all that Jazz

So the Australian visit has finally ended, bringing to an end a rather acrimonious tour. Allegations of racism against Indian crowds is perhaps the legacy of this tour. As a person who has been in the crowd at the "infamous North Stand" at the Wankhede, I find these charges rather questionable.

Andrew Symonds may be the only black member of the Australian team, but that is not why he was so vilified by the crowds at Bombay. He essentially dug his own grave, and should have expected the reaction he got after his comments at the start of the tour. The Australians love playing mindgames with the opposition, often targetting the opposition's main man, in an effort to "mentally disintegrate" him. Rather grudgingly, Indians have learnt to deal with it, and accept it as a part of top level professional sport. However, the comments made by Symonds, seemed to go beyond that. His statement "We have had a very successful side and I think watching how we celebrate and how they celebrate, I think we have been pretty humble in the way we have gone about it. And personally, I think they have got far too carried away with their celebrations. It has definitely sparked passion inside of us. It has certainly spiced it up as well.", may have been intended as a psychological ploy to needle India - it worked. Unfortunately, he overstepped his bounds by targetting the celebration - which was none of his business.

I do not know about the crowds at Baroda, but the Bombay crowd is one that does not forget details easily. I'm sure they were out for Symonds blood the moment he made that comment, and giving them information that "monkey" chants hurt Symonds was tossing things from the frying pan to the fire. I do not believe that the crowd was trying to be racist - just getting their own back at a person who had invaded their turf. The Wankhede crowd, of late, has degenerated in its comments from the hitherto witty (Madhuri ka Bhai kaun?...Jadeja, Jadeja) to the downright unimaginative(xxx is a b***ard, aye-o aye-o). The reception Symonds got when he walked out to bat was something he should have expected, given that he has played in Bombay before, and he knew that the crowds there are hostile at the best of times. If he got out to a first ball duck because he was "affected by the crowd behavior", then he should either learn to curb his comments, or retire. To paraphrase Steve Waugh's words - "That's ODI cricket. If you want to take up an easy sport,try netball." Symonds could have saved himself the reception he got if he had apologized for his remarks before the game began - the Wankhede crowd would have still got after him, but would have tempered their aggro.