Cultural divide
As the Australia-India Test series resumes in Perth with everyone having taken time to chill out after the events in Sydney, Mihir Bose, the BBC Sports editor, writes in the British Daily Telegraph about the reaction to the whole Harbhajan Singh
Andrew McGlashan
25-Feb-2013
As the Australia-India Test series resumes in Perth with everyone having taken time to chill out after the events in Sydney, Mihir Bose, the BBC Sports editor, writes in the British Daily Telegraph about the reaction to the whole Harbhajan Singh incident, the split of opinion that he has encountered and a language barrier.
I had got on to the story because I was intrigued that Harbhajan should have used the word 'monkey'. I grew up in India and the word had never been seen as a racial insult. The Indian word for monkey is 'bandar' and in my childhood was used a word to chastise children who were naughty. I was often myself called a bandar if I became too high spirited. What I also wanted to know was, if Harbhajan did call Symonds 'monkey', did he use the English word or the Indian word, bandar?
In the Guardian David Hopps says that even though the series has survived, there are other issues bubbling under the surface and mostly they concern money and power.
India's post-Sydney mix of wild threats and risible excuses - none more ridiculous than the claim that because monkeys are venerated in India, if Harbhajan had used the term it could not be racist - have lost it much respect in Australia. In the week that the Indian board announced a £500m, 10-year TV deal for rights to its new Twenty20 competition - the Indian Premier League - its lack of sober assessment has smacked not for the first time of power without responsibility.
Andrew McGlashan is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo