India is the new Australia

India's economic boom has released a new sort of cricketer - tough, independent, materialistic and comfortable in his own skin. Suddenly, India seemed to represent the future, Australia the past.

Australia was confronted and affronted by a younger version of itself. Australia always has had a strong and democratic cricketing culture. The captain is a tough nut from Mowbray and his predecessor grimaced more than he grinned. India used to depend upon players steeped in the ethics and traditions of the game.

Whatever the right and wrongs of the Sydney Test, the Australians lost their equanimity and never recovered. Harbhajan's exchange with Andrew Symonds was brief and of little account. And Symonds had started it. Symonds and Matthew Hayden are about as diplomatic as Sir Les Patterson. The rest was madness. Far from breaking their spirit, the attacks on Harbhajan helped the Indians to form the pack mentality that has long been the hallmark of Australian teams. The spinner's refusal to take a backward step was part of that.