November 15, 2007
Symonds lights the fuse for boycott
WITH Indian officials attempting to defuse Greg Chappell’s claims of a racially motivated cover-up, Andrew Symonds yesterday added to subcontinental tensions when he questioned touring neighbouring Pakistan because of terrorist attacks.
Andrew Symonds throws himself at a catch. Picture: James Kerr
The all-rounder, who was the victim of racial abuse on Australia’s one-day tour of India last month, was clearly concerned about bombs going off.
While the Queenslander appeared to be half-joking during a media conference at Bellerive Oval in Hobart, his reaction underlines doubts over whether Australia will make its three-Test tour to Pakistan in March.
Pakistan is in a state of emergency and national elections are due early next year, before the tour, around the time Cricket Australia will make a pre-tour safety inspection.
“There do seem to be a lot of bombs going off over there,” Symonds said as Australia prepared for the second Test against Sri Lanka which starts tomorrow.
“At the end of the day it is only a game of cricket.
“But I suppose being the diplomat that I am, we are going to have to wait and see when we get closer to the time how many bombs are going off over there. But it is being bombed.”
Australia’s three-Test tour of Pakistan in 2002-03 was moved to Colombo and Sharjah because of security issues.
Australian Cricketers Association chief Paul Marsh also said there were concerns.
“But we’re just going to have to wait and see what the result of the election is in early January and how things pan out from there,” Marsh said.
Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young said the situation would be assessed in January.
“We’re not going to be anywhere near danger and we have moved a previous Pakistan tour,” Young said. “But we’ll have a look at that situation and go through that normal process with Cricket Australia, the ACA and the Australian government.”
There was little normal in Indian cricket yesterday as officials desperately tried to fend off sensational claims from Chappell that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) attempted to cover up the seriousness of an assault on him while he was coaching the country in January.
Chappell was hit and pushed by a disgruntled fan as the team arrived in Bhubaneswar, in the eastern state of Orissa, to play a one-day international against the West Indies in January.
He makes the claim of racism following the incident in a documentary, Guru Greg, which airs on ABC television next Thursday.
“As I said to the BCCI in a letter, had it been one of the players who was attacked there would have been an outcry, but because it was me no-one seemed to care,” Chappell told The Australian.
“The reply came back talking about my racist comments.
“It was quite obvious it was a serious assault. It wasn’t just a push in the back as the media was led to believe. There was a cover-up. Everyone went into cover-up mode. The whole thing was played down. The only phone call I got from the BCCI asked me whether it really happened.”
BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi denied the board was racist and did not want to discuss the incident.
“That documentary is a thing of the past,” Modi said last night. “We have left it all behind us.
“Greg is now working with the Rajasthan Cricket Association.
“We have all moved on. I have nothing more to say than that.”
Modi also denied that Chappell’s claims, following on from the racial abuse Symonds suffered in the form of monkey chants in the last three games of the seven-match one-day series, suggested a pattern of racism in the country.
“No, I don’t agree with that,” he said. “These are stray incidents that have happened. They happen to many people across the world. That is not the sentiment shared by the board or the people here involved in the game of cricket. We don’t endorse anything like that at all. We have absolutely zero tolerance on racism. Absolutely zero tolerance.
“It was sad that people reacted the way they did (to Symonds) and we at the BCCI took a very strong stance.”
While the Australians will be bemused to see Modi’s claim that the BCCI did all it could when it ignored the issue until an Australian photographer provided photographic evidence, Modi claimed the BCCI and Cricket Australia were close on the issue.
“Cricket Australia is on the same page we are. There may be stray incidents but we hope there are not,” he said.
