Although Australia's cricket captain Steven Smith insists this edition of the Border-Gavaskar series is played in the right spirit, he doesn't have too many backers. The controversy over Smith looking towards the dressing room for a Decision Review System-related clue in the second Test at Bangalore did not end when the teams reached Ranchi for the third game. There was a fair share of unpleasant sights there as well.

Any suggestions that the fourth and final Test in Dharamsala will be incident-free, are overly optimistic. India and Australia have a history. There were examples of hot heads even three decades ago - in the epic 1986 Tied Test at Chennai - but pundits reckon there is a layer of hate being injected into the current battles. If true, these are worrying signs indeed, because there is no place for even a trace of hate in sports.