Shameful displays

The baggy green cap lies soiled and dishonoured on the bloody soil of the ‘Gabbatoir’. In their desperation for victory against India, the hosts have routinely assaulted and abused their visitors and pretended that it was all in the name of cricket. Even during the squalid cheating scandal of 2018, Australia never fell as low as they have during this four-test series against these gritty Indians.

Ball after short ball have been bowled at India’s lower order batsmen. Bones were cracked and men such as Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja were forced to retire hurt from the series, one with a shattered elbow, the other with a mangled hand. And yet still the onslaught continued.

There was nothing accidental about it. It was a planned assault. In the lead-up to the series Tim Paine, the grubby Australian captain, the man who was supposedly brought in to restore honour, said; ‘‘It is a tactic we use pretty consistently, particularly to the lower order. Playing the short ball at that pace is uncomfortable.’’

Indian after Indian suffered what Paine called discomfort. Their skin is raw from the bruises. Matthew Wade was heard on stump mike warning Ravichandran Ashwin during the third test in Sydney not to end up with a broken rib. And the commentators, largely a bunch of Ocker mates with the blessed exception of Isa Guha, condoned it all. When the Indian No 11 walked to the crease in the fourth test first innings it was quite clear he was scarcely able to hold a bat.

The first ball that Mitchell Starc bowled at the hapless tailender Thangarasu Natarajan was designed to hit him and to hurt him. He barely fended it off and the Australian commentators swarmed like flies. They called the ‘‘intimidating’’ balls ‘‘all part of the game’’ and said there was ‘‘an opportunity here to inflict a couple of wounds on to opposition bowlers.’’ They talked about breaking Natarajan’s hand or foot, what they call ‘‘nose and toes’’ bowling.

But of course intimidatory bowling, particularly at tailenders, is not part of the game. Law 42.8 specifically prohibits it. It states; ‘‘The bowling of fast short pitched balls is unfair if, in the opinion of the Umpire at the Bowler’s end, it constitutes an attempt to intimidate the Striker…

‘‘Umpires shall consider intimidation to be the deliberate bowling of fast short pitched balls which by their length, height and direction are intended or likely to inflict physical injury on the Striker. The relative skill of the Striker shall also be taken into consideration.’’

So where the hell were the umpires when all this was going on in test after test? Captain Paine admitted what the Australian plan was, the commentators called it, the bowlers made no attempt to hide it, and yet the umpires let the Aussie hoodlums, of whom Starc is by far the worst offender, continue to assault the Indian lower order, at whom over twice as many short