South Africa and India

[julianlev]

Hey everyone just joined the site after having been visiting for some months now. this is my first thread and I hoped to address the worrying trend of animosity between Indian and South African supporters. I am a South African and like many of my countrymen have the utmost respect for the Indian team. Yet scarcely a few weeks after the end of the "friendship tour" in SA, all I see on here is spiteful rhetoric being thrown back and forth between South African and Indian supporters. Not only is this unproductive, it counteracts the feelings of friendship and unity that cricket is supposed to provide. I'm tired of seeing rational argument and debate go out the window in favour of petty mudslinging every time there is a thread that involes SA and India. It is utterly ridiculous considering the ties between our teams. India are currently being coached by one of South Africa's greatest batsmen, and plenty of South Africans have been drafted for the IPL And I can tell you right now that everyone I know loved the indian team when they came on tour, Sreesanth not withstanding I for one am in favour of ending the mindless squabbling that seems to permeate the discussion here in favour of a return to respectful debate. :hatsoff:

[satyam1729]

OK I too like SA team and respect them and used to be my second favourite team in 1990s. But i don't like Smith unnecessary comments about Indian pitches. Best of luck to your team.

[Andy]

Am with you on this, But it is the South African Trolls to be blamed like prinzo and Your Captain, Graeme Smith.

[julianlev]

Graeme has always been a very...enthusiastic player and captain. He can sometimes be a little controversial, as anyone who has heard of the Gibbs story can tell. We tend to overlook his more inflamatory side because of the good he has done for the team. He also plays for my local domestic side so I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little lenient on the guy. Odds are he'll be handing over the reins of captaincy to Botha or DeVilliers once the World Cup is over so he won't be in the spotlight quite so much

[vvvslaxman]

Julien. I have visited several forums. South African fans have always been nice bar one guy. That is going to be there always. You cannot expect each and every personality in a country to be the same. As with Indian fans. There is no doubt India has highest number of internet users in all the cricket playing countries. So if somebody says something against India like Smith said in twitter it will cascade into a full scale onslaught against Smith in no time. It will eventually turn into an India vs SA fight. I don't think it has reached that stage yet. It is just against some cricketers.

[Ranjha]

Except for jack kallis and boucher, I dont like Sa.

[riwi999]

I totally agree with the op-ed. I like the South African team and am happy that since their re-induction into sport, they've always been close to the top of the game, providing good competition to other top teams. Cricket needs this badly. And while I am all for strong rivalry ON the field of cricket and also on cricket-specific discussions on forums, I think it should be confined to this only. No need to get nasty. India and South Africa have very good ties, India was the first country to play a series against SA in the post-apartheid era, I think we should encourage and build on this. Not on the cricket field of course. :-)

[pinkfreud]

I really like the South Africa team minus Graeme Smith. His mouth is bigger than his overall playing skills and in my view, he is very lucky to have such a team under him. I've heard a lot about Dale Steyn's conduct off the field too, he's supposed to be a very grounded and nice guy. The SA team is far better than the Australian team which is full of bloated egos and condescending folks barring Brett Lee.

[prinzo]

Andy Am with you on this, But it is the South African Trolls to be blamed like prinzo and Your Captain, Graeme Smith.

Please guys , do we want to put on our ballerina shoes or play cricket?? its nice to have a go at each other but there is a limit , not to go over board. Andy , my comments is not meant to offend anyone , but just to put some heat into the arguement and so on , but i do not take it to far , maybe here and there i say a few things to get everyone heated up , but so do you guys , its all good for the build up of anticipation when the SA vs India match gets under way. At the end of the day its always good to have to passionate cricket nation fans interacting with each other from across the world having their say. Remember that SA and India are two power houses in world cricket and both countries want to win the world cup , ,Semi finals is not good enough , maybe for minor countries . And yes SA did choke all the world cups , and i dont mind you guys reminding me everytime , although it gets annoying but its cool. So are we going to wear panties or are we going to have b@lls!!!

[Andy]

Please guys , do we want to put on our ballerina shoes or play cricket?? its nice to have a go at each other but there is a limit , not to go over board. Andy , my comments is not meant to offend anyone , but just to put some heat into the arguement and so on , but i do not take it to far , maybe here and there i say a few things to get everyone heated up , but so do you guys , its all good for the build up of anticipation when the SA vs India match gets under way. At the end of the day its always good to have to passionate cricket nation fans interacting with each other from across the world having their say. Remember that SA and India are two power houses in world cricket and both countries want to win the world cup , ,Semi finals is not good enough , maybe for minor countries . And yes SA did choke all the world cups , and i dont mind you guys reminding me everytime , although it gets annoying but its cool. So are we going to wear panties or are we going to have b@lls!!!

Your opinions, never make a sense, You point out India have never won a series in AUS or SA, how are they still NO.1? Well SA won last time in India was back 11 years ago, still for 90% of this period they were ahead of Inda in the Rankings, i do not see you complaining there. SA won a Test series in Lanka , may be when Smith was in 6th standard, still they are ahead of Lanka, i do not see you find flaws in the ICC Rankings for that. AUS won the first test series in India in many years back in 2004-2005, still they were Number 1 for the most of the year before that and even that you do not complain about or point it out, But when it is India, You Whites cannot accept that we can be Number 1 and keep whining about the flaws in ICC Rankings. All this shows you are an Extremely Biased poster and with some of your Countrymen the valid reason for the tension between Indian and SA Fans.

[prinzo]

Mr Andy , please get your fact right before you comment. If you read other threads you will see that i said Hashim Amla is the best ODI batsman in the world , than someone commented that virat Kholi is the best, so i used the test ranking spot as an example. If you want to compare when SA won a test series in Sri Lanka to gramme Smith in std6 , than do you want me to comment when the last time India won a world cup ? And no one is complainiing about the test ranking all i said was India as a major powerhouse in world cricket has yet to win a test series in Australia and SA. If you say i am biased than i can call you other names but i wont stoop to your level , and btw i am not White , it shows your mentality of thinking , i am a 5th generation south african born indian and so are the other millions of indians in SA. We support our country , not race.

[Andy]

Mr Andy , please get your fact right before you comment. If you read other threads you will see that i said Hashim Amla is the best ODI batsman in the world , than someone commented that virat Kholi is the best, so i used the test ranking spot as an example. If you want to compare when SA won a test series in Sri Lanka to gramme Smith in std6 , than do you want me to comment when the last time India won a world cup ?

Have you ever saw me calling us the Best ODI side in the world? Definitely Not.

And no one is complainiing about the test ranking all i said was India as a major powerhouse in world cricket has yet to win a test series in Australia and SA.

Ok, You need a Balanced side to 'WIN' a test series in Countries like SA and Aus, we are always batting heavy and managed to draw quite number of times. Mind you, we were the only team to have managed a Test Series Draw in SA when they used to rule Test Cricket and the World. And we have been pretty good in AUS as a team over the last 10 years. You'll not see a team that has been consistent in Aus as much as us in all forms before the retirement of Haydos, Symo, Gilchrist. Yes Our Record in SA have been poor, But we have just drawn a Series in SA, so i can say we have started to Improve.

If you say i am biased than i can call you other names but i wont stoop to your level , and btw i am not White , it shows your mentality of thinking , i am a 5th generation south african born indian and so are the other millions of indians in SA. We support our country , not race.

Good to know that.

[prinzo]

good vcomments , i feel like i was playing test cricket with Andy , now its game over , lets go have a drink in the bar .

[Hell Raiser]

Welcome to ICF Julianlev. I like South African team and support them against every other team except India.

[ganeshran]

Me likes Amla. Very elegant to watch.

[jibranpatel15]

i always and forever back south africa to win against any team at anywhere with whichever team. This is my faith on south african team and i am pretty confident about this wc that aouth africa will win it with whitewash. B-> B-> B-> B-> B->

[Andy]

i always and forever back south africa to win against any team at anywhere with whichever team. This is my faith on south african team and i am pretty confident about this wc that aouth africa will win it with whitewash. B-> B-> B-> B-> B->

Abe pandu yeh bi-lateral series nehi hai.