N.Ram wants a petition to hang Harbhajan

The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : All’s not well that ends well

Nevertheless, Harbhajan — a four-time offender against the Code of Conduct prior to Sydney — can count himself lucky in getting away with a conviction

N.Ram is clearly not happy that Harbhajan has not been sent to the gallows.

Racism is a grave offence in sport and the poignant fact is that Symonds, a black cricketer who was at the receiving end of some ugly ‘monkey gestures’ from the stands during Australia’s last tour of India, believed that Harbhajan had for the second time called him a “monkey.”

What has Symonds being called "monkey" by the crowds got to do with Harbhajan? This is the same old communist trick of deceit by association. The behaviour by Australian crowds has not exactly been exemplary. Just one example:

Egg thrown on Murali's face in Australia - Cricket - Cricket and Sports - MSN India

Australian fans showed no let up in their hostility towards Muttiah Muralitharan and a group of fans threw an egg on the Sri Lankan spin wizard's face in Hobart.

Constantly jeered by the hostile crowd and branded a chucker by the then Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a hurt Muralitharan boycotted the tour in 2004.

That, however, had little effect on the Australian crowd, which got even more hostile as the Sri Lankan looked set to overtake Shane Warne's world record of 708 Test wickets at the leggie's home turf.

Should we not take these into account while evaluating Symond's unprovoked sledging.

More importantly, when did monkey become a racist term? Sledging is saying something that hurts the other person. Symonds started it and he got it back. The Judge recognized it but not the "holier-than-thou" Chindu.

What was indefensible, from the standpoint of the spirit of cricket, was the BCCI’s unsporting tactics to pre-empt due process and the threats or implied threats to call off the tour. By behaving very much like cricket’s bullying financial superpower, it has lost goodwill round the cricket world.

Chindu wants BCCI not to stand up for its players but be perpetual slaves, first to the Chinese and then to anyone else. How about we talk about Australia's goodwill for a moment? Or how about Ricky Cheater Ponting's goodwill?

One reader summarizes it well for us.

The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : Harbhajan episode

What invective did Symonds utter and if he indeed did utter something, why has he been let off? If Bhajji can be punished for an alleged misdemeanour, why not Symonds? And what has the BCCI done to ensure that the Australians do not indulge in offensive on-field behaviour again?
- Ananth Seth, Secunderabad

Any answers, Chindu?