SYDNEY SPIN

Seldom has a world champion team on the verge of a record 17th straight win faced disappointed looks and adverse reactions from its own countrymen. And that is because of Ponting and his team8217;s win-at-all costs policy8212;even the Aussies hate it.

Geoff Lawson, former Australian fast bowler and now Pakistan coach, is among the many former greats who have slammed the manner in which Ponting8217;s team has conducted themselves. 8220;Perception is everything and the outside world believes that this Australian team is arrogant and not well-behaved. As an ex-Australian player, I was pretty disappointed,8221; says Lawson.

Coach John Buchanan led the Australian side to numerous successes, including a world-record 16 consecutive Test match victories and 23 ODI victories in World Cup tournaments. But now, the Australian team is going through a transitional phase8212;the Shane Warnes, the Glenn McGraths, the Damien Martyns and the Justin Langers have all been replaced by the likes of Andrew Symonds, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson and Phil Jacques who are all trying to fit the Baggy Green legacy. That8217;s where the problem lies and that8217;s where the rules of Australian cricket have been bent a bit to suit their convenience.

Seniors like Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden have the desire to keep up the dominance they have enjoyed over the years and are tempted into trying something silly, only to realise that 8220;certain things could have been done differently8221;, as the Australian skipper admitted later. The newcomers in the Test arena, who have seen their team win and only win, now don8217;t want to lose when they are fitting into the team themselves and thereby cultivated the 8216;winning is everything8217; attitude.

The Sydney Morning Herald ran an editorial saying that it could sense the bad aura around the Australian team. 8220;Apparently it8217;s fine for Australian players to question the masculinity of opposing players, the legitimacy of their birth, or the faithfulness of their wives, and for those who played in apartheid-era South Africa not to feel any embarrassment, but now Australia goes to the cricket court at the drop of a racist jibe,8221; it says.

Australia8217;s rebuilding process coincided with other teams realising that this was the right time to do the catching up. In turn, it has fuelled the current Australian team8217;s desperation to keep winning. The first time the 8216;spirit of the game8217; was put to test in Sydney was when Harbhajan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar were leading an Indian revival which threatened their domination in the game, and it happened in the dying hours of the match as the Indians were fighting hard to stop the 16th consecutive win.

Under fire from the public and peers, Cricket Australia had to bat hard for its team8217;s reputation. 8220;Test cricket is what is being played here. It8217;s not tiddlywinks,8221; believes Cricket Australia Chief Executive James Sutherland. 8220;It8217;s a tough game and out there from time to time emotions will bubble over and perhaps some of the words that are said will not be acceptable in genteel company. The Australian cricket team plays the game tough and uncompromising. It8217;s the way Australian cricket teams have played the game since 1877 under all sorts of different captains. That is the way Australians have expected their teams to play.8221;

Interestingly, Ricky Ponting, who been criticised severely, happens to be the only Australian member to have an afterthought after Sydney; the others are still sure that everything went okay, and the Indians or all others have been fretting unnecessarily. 8220;We go out to play as hard as we can but as fair as we can,8221; says Michael Hussey. 8220;Ricky Pointing has the support of our team and, I would think, every cricketer in Australia. There were a lot of contentious decisions but the way I was brought up in the game, you8217;ve got to accept the umpire8217;s decision whether you agree with it or not and it takes discipline to accept the decision and walk off without showing dissent.8221;

Fast bowler Stuart Clark also thinks on similar lines. 8220;A lot of what has been said in the aftermath of that game has been over the top,8221; he says. 8220;It8217;s a shame, because it has taken a lot of the focus away from what was a really good game of cricket. It seems like it is getting to the point where games will be played in silence, with no one speaking to each other. As long as no one crosses the line, a bit of chat out there is fine. Most of the talk in Sydney was pretty light-hearted, anyway, and that has been one of the reasons we have been taken by a bit of surprise with what8217;s gone on after.8221;

It8217;s rather strange that what Clark and Hussey thought was fine wasn8217;t appreciated by one of Australia8217;s best captain ever8212;Steve Waugh. 8220;What may have also disappointed India was Australia8217;s animated celebrations and delayed shaking of hands. I8217;ll never forget watching West Indies8217; exaggerated celebrations when they fortuitously beat us in a rain-affected one-day final before the Duckworth-Lewis system came into vogue and how deflated and agitated it left us. Winning is important but perhaps more is how you celebrate it,8221; he wrote.

Perhaps the best footnote came from Sourav Ganguly, the man who four years ago, had matched the Aussie might and drawn the Test series. 8220;Sometimes things happen at the heat of the moment. But I also admired how desperate they were to win. That8217;s not a bad thing in sport. Some decisions didn8217;t go our way. It hurt us. On the other side, it showed why they win so many Test matches.8221;

In Sydney, a decision had to be made8212;to showcase excellent spirit or the spirit of excellence. The debate started with Ponting8217;s choice. Now, it can only end when Ponting chooses to.

GENTLEMAN8217;S GAME? WHAT8217;S THAT ?
So Ricky Ponting and his men are boorish. But record books show that past Aussie teams haven8217;t exactly been polite either

February 12, 1971
Snow-Jenner incident, Sydney, 1970-71 series
England won by 62 runs to regain the Ashes. But the crowd booed English fast bowler John Snow, whose bouncer hit Australian tailender Terry Jenner on the head. A spectator grabbed him and the crowd rained beer cans on him. Captain Ray Illingworth led the English players off the field but returned after he was threatened with forfeiture.

January 23, 1999
The Ranatunga incident, Lankan tour of Australia
Muttiah Muralitharan was controversially called by Australian umpire Ross Emerson for throwing during an ODI vs England in Adelaide, Australia. Ranatunga led his players off the field in protest and was suspended for six months for doing so. He later said, 8220;I don8217;t think I will go back to Australia to play cricket. I don8217;t want to lose a couple of years of my life.8221;

April 1999
McGrath spitting, Antigua
Aussie pacer Glen McGrath allegedly spat on West Indian opener Adrian Griffith. McGrath was cleared of spitting at the batsman. Close call.

January 2006
McGrath again, South Africa tour
Glenn McGrath was reported for obscene behaviour on the fourth day of the Test and ordered to appear before an ICC panel. The ICC said McGrath had been reported by on-field umpires Aleem Dar and Billy Bowden and third umpire Bob Parry for 8220;using language that is obscene, offensive or insulting8221;. No harm done to McGrath8217;s career.

November 6, 2006
Champions Trophy
After BCCI chief Sharad Pawar handed over the trophy to skipper Ponting, the Aussies pushed Pawar around. Then, Ponting tapped Pawar on his shoulder and gestured him to leave the stage. Reaction: sharp criticism from Sachin Tendulkar, who described the incident as 8220;unpleasant8221;. Ponting was finally forced to apologise.

January 6, 2008
Second Test vs India, Sydney
Ponting initially cited the Spirit of the Game agreement, later decided to review video footage. Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland defended his skipper. Even the genial Anil Kumble was forced to say, 8220;Only one team was playing in the spirit of the game, that8217;s all I can say.8221;

RACISM AND AUSSIES
Suspension in 2003
In 2003, Darren Lehmann became the first Australian cricketer to be suspended for racist comments. It was during a match against Sri Lanka and the islanders complained that Lehmann made racist comments on his way back to the dressing room.

More abuses
As South Africa toured Australia in 2005-06, racist comments rained down from the stands during Tests in Perth and Sydney. The tourists made an official complaint.

And more
In 2007, Herschelle Gibbs got a two-Test ban for racist comments in a match versus Pakistan at Centurion Park. His comments were caught on the stump microphone.

Apartheid low
Retirements of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh in the eighties dealt a blow to Aussie power, but the bigger blow came when 16 players 8216;defected8217; to play in apartheid South Africa, then treated as a pariah state. It was a low point for Australian cricket.