Monday, January 7, 2008

Bone Age

I am still seething over the treatment of India in Australia.

As usual, the Aussies can give but they cannot take, just like McGrath and Sarwan.

To quote their ex-prime-minister, “it’s a very Australian thing to do.”

Also, didn’t the Aussies jump and scream and cry FOUL in 1999 because Lara took his complaint directly to the match referee when the video clearly showed McGrath spitting at Adrian Griffith??

Now, they take their complaint directly to the match referee when their only evidence is the hearsay of Australian players??? McGrath got a slap on the wrist but Bhajji gets suspended for three tests. What about INSTITUTIONAL racism in cricket??

I hope India maintains the moral high ground and finishes the series in which they are clearly being cheated, but I want to see the demise of people like Malcolm Speed and Mike Procter.

Today we went back to school. Our student, Tij, an ethnic Indian who is talented in both basketball and cricket reported the "success" of the Thai Under-15 team at the cricket tournament in Nepal:

"We finished fourth out of ten but then we were disqualified."

"Why?" I demanded.

"Because my bone age is 16."

Bone age???? "What is this?" I thought, "another method of discriminating against Indians in cricket?"

"No," Tij interrupted my thoughts. "It was basically all Indians there."

With youth teams like Oman, Singapore, and UAE, one can understand his sentiment. Still, this idea of bone age rankled me. They x-ray'ed all the youths. It reminds me of the Indian customs officials, x-ray'ing the luggage, looking for bottles of wine and trying to get some baksheesh.

"At least we're not like Afghanistan," he declared proudly, "they had all sixteen players disqualified."

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