Clarke the worst of a bad bunch
By John Edwards, Yahoo!Xtra Sports
January 07, 2008

John Edwards blog

Ricky Ponting's Australian team may have just equalled the world record for test wins but they far from deserve the accolade.

Yesterday's last gasp win over India may have them on par with Steve Waugh's team of 2001, statistically at least, but from a moral and ethical standpoint this team deserve to feature somewhere closer to Salim Malik's Pakistan team.

This Australian team in particularly (especially in the past few months) has, on more than one occasion, been guilty of bringing the game into disrepute.

All the talk of fair-play from great players like Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist goes out the window as soon as the result of a match is in the balance.

Bad and one-sided umpiring aside - and let's face it India copped the rough end of the stick - - Australia's players did whatever they had to, even endangering their own reputations as honest, to win.

The worst of a bad bunch was undoubtedly Michael Clarke.

Shame on him. The second test against India really exposed his word as being amongst the most untrustworthy in world cricket.

Not only did he see it as unbefitting to walk off the park after CUTTING a ball to first slip he then decided it was well within his rights to claim another catch he may well have not caught. (Remembering he already pulled this stunt on Gareth Hopkins a few weeks back).

Which brings me to the Harbhajan Singh's three-test ban. Racism should not be tolerated, but surely Symonds himself began the conversation with rude words of his own?

Australia's old saying of what happens on the field stays on the field disappears as soon as one of their own comes under fire.

Where were the bans for Ian Healy and Shane Warne at the height of their feud with Arjuna Ranatunga?

Where was the ban for Michael Clarke when he called Chris Gayle a second class citizen?

That case was dismissed for lack of umpire evidence. Neither umpire heard Harbhajan Singh's comments on Friday (although no-one is sure Steve Bucknor can hear anything these days) yet he receives a strong punishment.

The lack of sportsmanship from the Aussies yesterday is perhaps the first sign of its cricketing hegemony collapsing.

Maybe Ricky Ponting realised that without Warne and McGrath he no longer has the fire power to dismiss good teams without the help of umpires and his own dubious on-field interjections.

Ponting was furious when he and his team's integrity were questioned by a reporter at the end of the match.

After yesterday's showing he better learn to take that on the chin for the rest of his career.

Kiwi post.

Lets hear the other side of each story hey ?

Was that from the "Crossing Over" John Edwards or the "Democrat Presidential Candidate" John Edwards ?

Is there anything to listen from the other side? The other side has made it very clear that to win by "hook or by crook" is their only objective.

Firstly, I have to admit that the whole of the Aus vs India series has passed me by so far as I've been on holiday. However, some of what I've read has shocked me.

Now, an issue that does annoy me a lot is when players claim catches that they didn't take. I'm sure I remember a wicket keeper about ten years ago being banned for several tests after claiming a catch that bounced a yard in front of him.

One that particularly annoyed me was Michael Clarke's against NZ (Gareth Hopkins) a few weeks ago. Aussie were well on top, and lets not forget that on that occasion they were deserved winners. However, Clarke's catch was despicable. It was very clear to see from the replay that he turned his hands over so the palms were pointing DOWN as he reached the ball as he realised that the ball was going to bounce and could have spun away from him for runs.

I have heard others say that claiming such catches is no different to not walking on an edge, which seems to be accepted practise these days. In these instances, however, eventually you will reap what you sow and a non-walker will be given out when he hasn't edged it. In other words, there is an opportunity for the books to be balanced. With these disputed catches though, they are relatively rare. Has Michael Clarke ever been dismissed controversially when an opposition player has claimed a catch unreasonably? I honestly don't know but I'll certainly be hoping that something in the fates sees fit to even up the score on him. His reputation is like mud to many cricket fans in the world at the moment, and that in itself is a very sad state of affairs.