Now, I know people are going to be offended by my use of this word, and for that I apologise in advance, but when I saw the replay of Ponting appealing for the "catch" when he was standing about two metres from the batsman and the ball quite obviously came off the pad and wasn't within a foot of the bat or the glove, my immediate thought was "what a cunt". As of this test match I have lost all respect for the Australian cricket team. I don't give a shit that they've now won sixteen test matches in a row, because in my opinion they cheated in all but name to win this one. Yes, the umpiring was appalling - and almost universally to the detriment of the Indians - but the Australians colluded in a lot of the decisions with bad appeals and a refusal to walk when they knew they were out. I used to like Andrew Symonds: give or take a drunken incident or two, he seemed an all right bloke. Now I consider him to be a cheat: he knew he was out, and he stood his ground and went on to make a century that played a decisive role in the test. I know, I know, he's not obliged to walk, but it strikes me as deeply sad that the phrase "It's just not cricket" can now be applied to everything in life except cricket. There's supposed to be a code of conduct in the game, and claiming that it's a professional high-stakes sport is just not a good enough excuse. For so long now the Australian cricket team has been streets ahead of the rest of the world, raising the bar again and again - now the only example they have left to set to the rest of the world is that of sportsmanship. But they're not doing that. They're abusing their position as the undisputed champions of the game to utterly debase the sport. The longer Australia continues in this vein, the poorer cricket will be. I refuse to acknowledge this result, and though I'll watch the rest of the series I'll be hoping desperately for India to finish it at two-all, because the Australians simply do not deserve to win.
And in case anyone was wondering, I've lived in Australia all my life.