India and Australia have engaged in a fierce rivalry over the years. Their battles have been legendary. Players from both sides participate in verbal duels. Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain was known for his ideology of mental disintegration. But long before Australia took up the mantle of playing hard tough cricket, India and Australia were involved in plenty of mudslingings.
We at Stumpsandbails bring you five such India-Australia controversies in Australia which rocked the foundations of cricket in general.
Sunil Gavaskar threatened to walkout
Sunil Gavaskar was adjudged LBW to a Dennis Lillee delivery in the 1981 Melbourne Test by umpire Rex Whitehead. But Gavaskar wasn’t convinced with the decision, he thought that the bat had made contact with the ball. He expressed his displeasure by standing his ground. He also slapped his pads with the bat, thereby letting the umpire know about his anger.
Just when the original “little master” was about to leave, Lillee allegedly made one comment which irked Gavaskar even further. He instructed fellow opener, Chetan Chauhan, to walk off the field with him. Chauhan the junior partner followed Gavaskar blindly and continued to walk along with him. But both these batsmen were held at the boundary rope by team manager Shahid Durrani and Bapu Nadkarni, the assistant manager. Chauhan was convinced to return to resume his innings, while Gavaskar walked into the pavilion. It has been almost 4 decades now and Gavaskar still regrets this incident.
Sachin Tendulkar- Daryl Harper
India had a difficult tour of Australia in 1999-00. Things got even more worse for the touring Indian team when their star batsman, Sachin Tendulkar was controversially adjudged LBW in a match at Adelaide. Glenn McGrath bowled a bouncer to Tendulkar, and the “master blaster” instinctively ducked at the short one. The ball did not bounce as much as Tendulkar expected and hit his shoulder while he ducked. McGrath appealed and in seconds umpire Daryl Harper responded in the affirmative. Tendulkar was shell shocked at the decision and this piece of umpiring did not go down well with fans from across the world.
The monkey gate episode:
India were the only team in world cricket back in 2007 that managed to get under the skin of the Australian team. India were going strong in their batting essay against the Aussies through a steady partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh. That is when Australian allrounder, Andrew Symonds said a few words to Harbhajan Singh. To which, Harbhajan immediately retorted with few words. Nobody knew the magnitude of the fight until the completion of the match.
Post the match’s completion, Harbhajan was accused of racially abusing Andrew Symonds. It was alleged that Harbhajan called Symonds a monkey. The Indian team fought this allegation tooth and nail and managed to successfully clear Harbhajan’s name from the allegation. Things reached such a standpoint that the Indian team wanted to quit the series midway. But eventually went on to play the series and gained wide respect for their behaviour both on and off-field.
Wrong umpiring decisions and players not obeying the spirit of cricket code:
The monkey gate saga wasn’t the only event that unfolded in the Sydney test of 2007. It saw umpiring howlers of another league and India were badly affected by the decisions made by the umpires. It started in the first innings when Ricky Ponting was ruled not out by umpire Mark Benson when he had clearly nicked the ball.
But the major talking point was when Andrew Symonds still early into his innings got a reprieve from the umpire, Steve Bucknor. Symonds had nicked the ball and everyone except the umpire heard the noise. Australia were 134-6 then and went on to make 463 in total in the first innings. A lesser-known fact is that Andrew Symonds was out stumped by Wicket-keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. But his appeal was outrightly rejected by Steve Bucknor. To make matters worse for the Indians, Rahul Dravid was wrongly adjudged caught behind during India’s 2nd innings. The ball had missed the bat but umpire Steve Bucknor still sent him back to the pavilion.
The other facet of Aussies that came to the fore during this match was their trait of playing ugly to win. None of their players walked when they knew they were out. Classic examples among them were Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, and Andrew Symonds. It didn’t just end there, Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke both claimed a bump catch which was clearly against the spirit of cricket. To add insult to injury, umpire Benson accepted Ponting’s claim that Clarke had cleanly caught Sourav Ganguly at slip. Sunil Gavaskar, who was on air blasted the Australian team and the umpires for their arrogance.
Virat Kohli’s Fingergate incident:
Virat Kohli was having an ordinary series against the Aussies (2011-12). He was yet to become the brand Kohli he is now. During the second test, an untoward incident happened when Kohli who was fielding at the boundary was riled up by a bunch of Australians. Kohli raised his middle finger in a moment of sheer madness to express his displeasure towards the crowd. He was slapped with a 50% match fee cut for this gesture.