How The World Turns

Writing in the Outlook, Brian Stoddart believes the whole Harbhajan-Symonds saga throws up "some serious questions about the nature and mental attitude of the Australian game in dimensions running from the on-field approach through the game's management to the Australian media's handling of affairs".

Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspaper cricket writers have been noticeably pro-Australian during this series ... That approach has extended to the Channel Nine commentary fed to the Australian and international public. The judicious Richie Benaud is now edged out by the partisan efforts of ex-players like Ian Healy.

... At the on-field level it is easy to see it as just the Australian players having unexpectedly "glass jaws", the ability to dish out on-field invective accompanied by a lowered capacity to absorb it