Another storm brewing?
BREATHING FIRE: Young India paceman Praveen Kumar, who returned figures of 4-31, sends down yet another delivery during their CB Series match against Sri Lanka at Hobart yesterday.Photo: AFP
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Tuesday accused Australia's Andrew Symonds of provoking young paceman Ishant Sharma in their tri-series clash at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
The two became embroiled in a set-to when Symonds took offence to the Indian's celebration after he had clean-bowled him, leading Sharma to point the all-rounder towards the pavilion.
The gesture led the 19-year-old bowler to be fined 15 per cent of Sunday's match fee by match referee Jeff Crowe.
But speaking after his side crushed Sri Lanka by seven wickets here on Tuesday to earn a place in the Commonwealth Bank Series finals against Australia, Dhoni echoed the Indian management's earlier claims that Symonds had instigated the incident.
"He only reacted to what Symonds said to him," Dhoni said of Sharma's reaction.
An Indian official confirmed that a complaint had been lodged with Crowe about provocative behaviour of several Australians -- believed to be Symonds, captain Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden.
The complaint came in a letter to the match referee after Sunday's match, the Daily Telegraph said.
The newspaper report said the Indians had not ruled out boycotting the upcoming tri-series finals if they qualified to face the Australians.
The Indians had also threatened to boycott the rest of the tour afterthe contentious second Test at the SCG, which saw spinner Harbhajan Singh banned for three matches for allegedly racially abusing Symonds, the decision later overturned at an International Cricket Council appeal hearing.
Dhoni conceded sledging had been part of cricket for many years and said his team was prepared to fight back with a few comments of their own.
"It's been going on for a long time and you have to be careful about that," he said. "If you're getting provoked then there are ways in which you can reply so you have to be careful about it.
"We have youngsters in the side who will learn all these arts. I think it's an art. You have to be good at it."
The simmering tension between the sides stretches back to the contentious second Test in Sydney, when Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh was suspended for three matches for allegedly racially abusing Symonds. The decision was later overturned at an appeal hearing.
Meanwhile Australia's fast-bowler Brett Lee on Tuesday claimed the antipathy between the sides had been blown out of proportion and said they got on well.
He also defended his team's on-field behaviour and played down talk of another rift with India.
Lee admitted the Australians used gamesmanship on the field, but said they never went too far.
"The whole mental disintegration is like a way to try and overcome your opponent, that's happened in Test match cricket for a long, long time and now it's happening in one-day cricket," Lee said.
"It's a matter of going out there and trying to play the hardest possible cricket you know you can, providing that we don't step over that line and we definitely haven't done that."
Lee, who is friends with several of Indian players, said he wasn't concerned by the latest Indian complaints and was more concerned with Friday's tri-series match with Sri Lanka.
"There has been a fair bit spoken, especially after the game and the complaints and stuff, but it's a matter now of focussing on the game of cricket," he said.
However, Dhoni conceded that wasn't necessarily the case, saying: "Cricket can never be friendly. There will always be aggression on the field but as long as it's balanced and nobody crosses the line, then it's fair enough."
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