The recent one-day series between India and Australia left only one memory - the targeting of Andrew Symonds by the crowd. This definitely overshadowed the results of the games themselves. I know why this happened and it did so for the fist time in India, as far as I remember.

Crowd behaviour in India is not as terrible as in Australia or by English soccer fans. Indian crowds are known for taking defeat of their team sportingly. They know what to expect from a series based on which team India is playing against. Most of the time, the home team get the flak for poor performances. Even Sachin Tendulkar has been booed at Mumbai.

No-one has any doubts about Australia's supremacy in Test and one-day cricket. Winning against such a team always thrills the crowd  - on a consistent basis, the Indian public have been tolerant of defeats. However, when the team's potential shows high promise and they fail to live up to it, they are not kind to their own players. Symonds is probably not aware of this. Effigies were burnt by irate crowds when the team got booted out of the recent World Cup.

'The monkey calls and racial slurs made the whole series a painful memory for everyone'


So what exactly did Symonds do that invited this special treatment?

It is not his outstanding performances that caused the public to target him. Indian bowling has been mauled by many players in the past - by Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad to name a few. And Indian batsmen have been turned over by the likes of Imran Khan, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Richard Hadlee.

Holding sent half a team to the hospital before the era of helmets and protective gear, yet no-one swore at him when he toured India. He was respected and admired as a fast bowler. Ian Botham was loved by the Indian crowds. Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath were tough on the pitch but they did not get singled out by the crowds. Symonds would have been appreciated too, but for one thing.

Rewind to just after the ICC Twenty20 championship, just before the ODI series started. Symonds spoke a little too loud. And he mistimed it. There is nothing wrong in celebrating a victory  - Indian teams do not get to win matches day in and day out like the Australians. Symonds mentioned that the Australians don't celebrate victories like the Indians and that the Australian team were there to put the Indian team in its place (to paraphrase his words).

In my opinion, these comments were hurtful. The media is all-embracing. Had the Indian team managed to contain the Aussies from the start and made the matches more even, then public sentiments would have been tempered. But that did not happen. The Australian dominance game after game made the crowds react. And they targeted Symonds for his words at the beginning of the series.

Had he remained quiet like his colleagues and captain and concentrated on his performance on the field, no-one would have troubled him. Mathew Hayden did as well as Symonds - but he lets his batting do the talking.

Passing comments on one's home territory is one thing. Passing them abroad is another thing. Didn't Tony Greig grovel at the end of the series with West Indies? Didn't Botham's team get humbled by the Windies? Indians would have loved to see their team do that after Symonds made his comments. Unfortunately the team does not have the cannons to knock out the Australian fortress in the one-day format. The monkey calls and racial slurs made the whole series a painful memory for everyone.

But I wouldn't call it a racist reaction at all. Indians and Pakistanis have a lot more tension and stress level when their teams meet. Miandad was not a polite man with opposing teams. His last-ball six off Chetan Sharma still hurts the Indian fans. Even he was never singled out by the Indian crowds. That is because Pakistan ended up being mostly on the receiving end when Miandad played his matches in India.

The Australians do so much training and coaching in improving their playing skills. Maybe it is time they appointed a coach for teaching their players diplomacy and sportsmanship. This is one area where they fall quite short. Symonds should have let his captain do the talking. Ricky Ponting behaved admirably as a captain and Symonds should have followed Ponting's example.

I do not approve what our crowds did to Symonds or any other player. But I would not say it was racism, it was hurt pride. The Australians should realise this as they are going to face more hostile crowds wherever they go. Teams may be inferior, and people may not look respectable. But everyone has pride.

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