Harbhajan's Monkey Gesture

[King Tendulkar]

The media had been whipping up a frenzy and it appears as though they are playing to the lowest common denominator...and revealing a lot about themselves. Mob mentality. Now they have egg on their faces, they will smallnote their embarrasment as much as they bignoted the initial accusation. The crowd was looking for something to stitch him up with, by the looks of things. The man scratches his armpit, he is doing a monkey act. He spits, he is spitting at us. He farts, we have to smell. If he touches his toes with his back to us, he is giving us the arse. If he does the bhangra with two fingers, he is flipping us. Ridiculous, vindictive and petty partisan behaviour.

good post

[bharat297]

Did anyone ... even the Australians seriously think Bhajji was guilty ... LOL. What he must learn is a non-racial way to scratch those itches under the armpits ... perhaps next drinks break they bring him out a large fork and a spit bucket, because the precious aussies will whinge about anything.

[cochise]

He should carry placards with him and wave them to the four corners of the crowd..."OK, don't be shocked, I am going to scratch my armpit, this is not directed at you...I am just itchy. Thank you for calling me ******. You are too kind. I will keep you posted on my next action that could be construed as controversial."

[DomainK]

I wonder what will happen if Bhajji eats a banana. They will ask to hang him.

[cochise]

To prove he is not making monkey taunts, he will have to eat it with fork and knife, without peeling the skin.

[bharat297]

hahaha

[flamy]

Unfortunately, the plight of Rohit Sharma is yet to be decided... :D

[cochise]

Did he have a banana without cutlery?

[flamy]

nope, full report here: http://indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?t=93161

[Whisper]

Did anyone ... even the Australians seriously think Bhajji was guilty ... LOL.

haha don't worry, i don't think anyone over here really took it seriously at all... it was a massive media beatup just trying to add fuel to the fire. Even the aussie team knew nothing of it. i actually think a great deal of the 'controversy' this tour has been blown out of proportion by the media

[Sachinism]

Aussie media is an absolute disgrace, they pull up more BS than Star News

[DomainK]

Aussie media is an absolute disgrace' date=' [b']they pull up more BS than Star News

I am afraid I have to agree. I though starnews is the crappiest ever....but...

[cochise]

i actually think a great deal of the 'controversy' this tour has been blown out of proportion by the media

Indeed it has. It has been very revealing about the media and how it operates... Domain et al...not all aussie media is like this...if only you could see mediawatch on ABC that catch out these clowns every week...

[Whisper]

Aussie media is an absolute disgrace' date=' they pull up more BS than Star News[/quote'] yeah i have to agree with you on that, but from what i've seen i don't think the Indian media is much better. I think the media on both sides just likes to spin as much **** as they can to sell as many papers as possible. Nevermind, at least its brought the game to the attention of alot of people.. even my girlfriend was watching bits of the game yesterday which was a huge shock to me :haha:

[arkay]

Crowd carry-on over Harbhajan Crowd carry-on over Harbhajan Greg Baum March 4, 2008 Advertisement Greg Baum reels from sanctimonious claptrap directed at the Indian spinner. SYMONDS is a monkey. Harbhajan is a monkey. You're a monkey. Everyone's a monkey. Monkey, monkey, monkey. The word "monkey" no longer has a racist connotation. It has been flung around so freely, loudly and indiscriminately this summer that it has lost all its pejorative sense. Mostly, it prompts no more adverse reaction than tittering. Like "bastard" or "prick", "monkey" has a put-down value that has nothing to do with its meaning, and nothing to do with race. Accusations of racism have been made so regularly and reflexively this summer that any sense of racism as an abhorrent disposition has been lost. It is sanctimonious vogue, the indictment of the moment. Not every utterance that refers to the difference between peoples is racist. Some comedians, the cleverer ones, get good mileage out of it. "Pom" is an everyday word here. But "racist" has become like "bastard", "prick" and "monkey", a convenient slur, unthinking at best, calculated at worst. It means that Australians, who for the most part are inured to any intrinsic nastiness in the word "monkey", suddenly become righteously indignant when another, a foreigner, directs it towards one of their own. Some begin even to keep a 24-hour vigil on any recurrence. And if that is not enough, to bait for it. This is the miserable threshold to which cricket and cricket crowds have descended. This is the game — unregulated and little policed — within the game. It reflects poorly on all. Harbhajan Singh is a hothead, that much is clear. It is probable that some of the Australian players, knowing this, were hoping to provoke him into an intemperate remark during the Sydney Test, where this whole tawdry affair began. It worked. It is certain that some of the crowd at the SCG on Sunday night was out to provoke Harbhajan. It also worked. Reportedly, Harbhajan made a monkey-like gesture to his antagonists, and spat at — but not on — them, prompting howls of indignation. "There are a lot of young people sitting here, and it was inappropriate," one spectator told The Age. "If he wants respect, he has to treat others with respect." This spectator, who was so concerned about young people and so insistent on the need for respect, was sitting in a crowd that in chorus was calling Harbhajan a "******". Another spectator complained in the Herald Sun that Harbhajan spat in his direction, six or seven times. "Spitting is not on in my book," he said. "That's a bit out of line." This spectator, who was so upset by Harbhajan's demeanour, was wearing a fluorescent green T-shirt inscribed: "Monkey see … monkey do." So the interaction between crowd and player can be summed up thus: crowd incites hothead to behave hotheadedly, then feigns offence at his hotheadedness. Crowd reserves right to deliver invective, but not to receive it. The spectator was right: that was no place for the young and impressionable. There are no winners in this game. The complaints of the Australian players are just a little unctuous, given their record. The Indians have done themselves no favours by trying to out-Australia the Australians. (What was Mahendra Dhoni thinking when he sent Harbhajan to field on the fence?) And the idea of a sporting crowd staking a claim to the high moral ground is absurd. Make no mistake. Harbhajan has been here long enough, and seen and heard enough, to know better. If he did make monkey gestures towards the crowd on Sunday, he knew what he was doing, and should be sent straight home and told to stay there. But so should all those who went to the cricket to goad him on Sunday night, and all those who did nothing to stop it, and all those who thought it was quite funny, and even funnier when it had the desired effect, and all those who mounted their high horses and in a great display of faux fury charged a set-upon visitor, outnumbered by many thousands to one, with the offence du jour: "Racist!" It wouldn't leave much of a crowd, or much of a game. This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/03/03/1204402368604.html

[arkay]

Aussie Hypocrisy at it best!!!

Another spectator complained in the Herald Sun that Harbhajan spat in his direction, six or seven times. "Spitting is not on in my book," he said. "That's a bit out of line." This spectator, who was so upset by Harbhajan's demeanour, was wearing a fluorescent green T-shirt inscribed: "Monkey see … monkey do."

This spectator, who was so concerned about young people and so insistent on the need for respect, was sitting in a crowd that in chorus was calling Harbhajan a "W@nker".

NICELY PUT....

The complaints of the Australian players are just a little unctuous, given their record

[Lurker]

Yeah welcome to the modern world of cricket. A world where players put money first and a world where crowd nuisance is growing by the day. Not too long many stadium in the world had little, and often no, seperation between crowd and players. People would take their picnic basket, sit on the lawn and enjoy the game. Today it is all a past of course. Routinely players are being mocked, hooted, booed and what have you. Thus far the only place where it still seems to be holding good is England, and perhaps Pakistan. The trio of India, Australia, South Africa seems to be the worst culprit.

[Gambit]

"There are a lot of young people sitting here, and it was inappropriate," one spectator told The Age. "If he wants respect, he has to treat others with respect." This spectator, who was so concerned about young people and so insistent on the need for respect, was sitting in a crowd that in chorus was calling Harbhajan a "******". Another spectator complained in the Herald Sun that Harbhajan spat in his direction, six or seven times. "Spitting is not on in my book," he said. "That's a bit out of line." This spectator, who was so upset by Harbhajan's demeanour, was wearing a fluorescent green T-shirt inscribed: "Monkey see … monkey do."

This is hilarious! :hysterical: Hypocritically precious.

[beetle]

I can only assume "baby stealing" is in reference to the stolen generation about young aboriginies taken from their families in our past i.e. "takkayoungkiddia" Aussie cricketers have done themselves no favours by getting involved in this tit for tat garbage over here and believe me no true aussie supporter condones this kind of activity, the big point of contention is the beleif that India is entirely innocent of contributing to the overall problem. To use another australianism, according to you guys (and girls) your s@!t doesn't stink blind freddy knows it takes two to tango. You need to veiw these incidents more objectively, a total one eyed approach is just pure unreaonable fanaticism and achieves nothing. BTW, every aussie loves to see the little master make runs, unfortunately for us he did it in a final and won the game.

Agree matty G...Indians are not totally innocent, but remember...they are just responding to aggressive sledging by a team that has turned obnoxious sledging into an art form. Bhajji is an abnoxious weed most times but compared to Hayden and Symonds ,he is almost an angel.

[IndianRenegade]

Aussies fear Harbhajan, try to target him: Mother Chandigarh: As off-spinner Harbhajan Singh found himself embrolied in yet another race row, his mother Avtar Kaur today came to his defence, saying the off-spinner was being targetted by the Australians as he has been performing well Down Under. "The Aussies fear him as a bowler. He has been bowling well against them. They want to keep him down somehow, which is why some controversy or the other is raked up," Kaur said. Australian media reports claimed that Harbhajan Singh had made monkey gestures towards the Sydney crowd during the first final of the tri-series against Australia yesterday. "I can say for sure that Harbhajan can never do any such thing which hurts the sentiments of an individual or a group," she said. She said the hype was being created about the alleged incident in the Australian media because India were on the winning side. "Our side has challenged their dominance in the game and now they are finding ways to hit back at us," she said. The International Cricket Council today ruled out taking any action against Harbhajan in the latest incident due to lack of evidence. Kaur said she has spoken to Harbhajan, who was involved in a racism row with Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds during the Test series, and he told her that the whole thing had been blown out of proportion. "Even then Harbhajan told me that the Aussie player used abusive language, but he restrained himself and did not reply in similar manner," she added.