The Hindu : Sport : Cricket Australia draws flak on Symonds issue

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Sunday, Oct 14, 2007
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Cricket Australia draws flak on Symonds issue

Melbourne: Cricket Australia has refused to lodge an official complaint on the racial abuse suffered by Andrew Symonds during the fifth one-dayer against India and left the matter to the BCCI to handle — a move which received widespread criticism in the local media.

“We’re moving on. The team travels to the next city. We’ve left it in the hands of the Indian cricket authorities,” said CA Public Affairs Manager Peter Young, who is also the anti-racism officer in Australia.

“We’re confident they’ll do everything they need to do in the same way that we would if we were the responsible cricket board here,” he was quoted as saying by The Australian.

Symonds had complained of ‘monkey chants’ from a section of Vadodara crowd when the all-rounder was fielding near the boundary.

India’s Solicitor-General Goolam Vahanvati, contracted by the ICC for anti-racism probe, has also advised the Australian team management to make a formal complaint on the matter. “They should make a formal complaint. My views on this matter are very clear: there is no place for racism in sports at all,” he told The Age.

But Adam Gilchrist said “it’s in the hands of the administrators, so we’ll wait and see where it goes from there, but I believe Symo is pretty happy to move on and try to get the focus back on his cricket.”

Media reaction

However, the Australian media has reacted, saying the CA was being “timid” by not taking action on the racial abuse suffered by Symonds for fear of offending India, the richest cricket board.

“Symonds has been gagged and CA has not complained to match referee Chris Broad, the BCCI or the International Cricket Council, claiming the ICC’s anti-racism policy clearly states it is the home board’s responsibility,” reported The Australian.

“Australia’s timid approach to the issue was a far cry from South Africa’s overreaction two years ago, when it demanded and received an ICC investigation into Australian crowds after some South Africa players were abused in Afrikaans,” the paper said.

But Young claimed it was “not the case” that Australia was trying to protect its financially lucrative relationship with India. “We haven’t spoken to India but presumably they’re doing that and there is some discussion between them and the ICC.”

However, the ICC has claimed that it would wait for a report from Broad before acting. “There has been no complaint from Cricket Australia but, nevertheless, we were made aware of this issue by media reports,” an ICC spokesman said on Friday.

“First and foremost we will examine the match report of ICC match referee Chris Broad. If that report indicates an issue then, as appropriate, we would write to the host Board (BCCI) asking for its comments before proceeding further.” — PTI

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