Australia and India Get Set to Battle it Out - On the Field

Matthew Hayden has come out on Brisbane Radio and called Harbhajan Singh an obnoxious weed. Hayden, a key player all summer in the general agro, should have known better, instead of turning his brain off and deciding to pour petrol over the already blazing fire. It is the latest saga in an angry summer that has seen racism rows, threats of boycotts and general fiery confrontations between the two teams.

The ICC has to take control of this situation. Like most things there are certainly two sides to this story and the blame needs not to be pointed at either of the two teams. It is no surprise that both the Indian and Australian Cricket boards are supporting their own teams but the on field and more importantly off field bickering is damaging the game.

The ICC has two simple options of either banning all sledging or giving the players a wider berth. A decision has to be made sooner rather than later and a set of easy to follow rules needs to be constructed so that the match referee can make simple decisions. If they ban all sledging put microphones in the stumps and tell players to play the game and not enter into conversation with the opposition.

The other option is to open up the door and let the sledging continue with the two field umpire being the referee and keeping things under control. This would require the players to adhere to the old adage of "what goes on the field stays on the field" but it appears that the highly paid pretty boys of cricket today find this very hard to abide by.

So what about the cricket? Well the finals will be a good contest between the two teams and I would recommend taking the Indians game by game at PartyBets. I don't think there is much between the two teams and you may as well take the good price that is going to be availble for the Indians. One thing is for sure, both teams will be giving 100%!

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