Unlike past series, a War of words between india and australia has been a surprising omission ahead of the first Test that starts in Mohali today
Unlike past series, a War of words between india and australia has been a surprising omission ahead of the first Test that starts in Mohali today
The India-Australia rivalry in recent times has been one of the fiercest cricket has seen. But often it has also spilled over off the field and that disappointed fans in both the countries.
Be it the Andrew Symonds-Harbhajan Singh controversy Down Under in 2008 that had its roots in the ODI series played in India or the time when the cricketing community was split in two after the controversial Sydney Test in the same year.
These incidents had assumed dire proportions and could have severely affected high-quality cricket the teams dished out regularly.
But this time, almost two weeks after the Aussies landed in India and when the two take on each other in the first Test today, there hasn't been many verbal volleys fired at each other ufffd a surprise of sorts considering that the Australian modus operandi has always been of using pre-match talks as a method to gain psychological advantage.
India skipper MS Dhoni seems to believe that the Indian Premier League, where many Aussies played with India players, is a reason.
"All the players are friends but that remains off the pitch. That does not mean you have to be rude or rough it out on the field. The Australians are all really nice guys and we gelled well with them while playing in the IPL. They are tough opponents with a lot of character and I am fond of them," Dhoni said yesterday.
For skipper Ricky Ponting, it is imperative the series is played without any incident in the wake of the spot fixing scandal.
"I think it is the responsibility of both teams to make sure that the verbal battles are kept in check. Good teams contest on the field and not off it. Both teams must understand that they can't cross a certain line."
"Cricket is facing a lot of negativity these days and it is important that we play in a proper manner so people will watch us," the skipper added.
A clean cricketing contest between two strong sides is a dish nobody would want to decline.
