Stop sledging war, say Indians

INDIAN officials have called for an immediate end to the sledging war with Australia that continues to drag their tour into the gutter.

Opener Matthew Hayden's pronouncement on Brisbane radio yesterday that touring spinner Harbhajan Singh had always been a "little obnoxious weed" fanned the flames re-ignited in a spiteful one day contest between the teams in Sydney on Sunday.

Young paceman Ishant Sharma was sanctioned for giving allrounder Andrew Symonds a send-off in the match, while Hayden and Harbhajan were again involved in a verbal stoush after Hayden reputedly called the bowler a "mad boy".

Hayden countered by saying he had said "bad boy".

Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) secretary Niranjan Shah said the sledging issue had gotten "out of hand and is going too far".

However, he also indicated that the BCCI would not be reacting in a manner that would inflame things further, preferring to help bring an end to the souring of relations between the two teams.

"We don't want to react and make a controversy in this matter," Shah told NDTV overnight.

"It is best to ignore such comments which are not good for the game."

The Indians arrived back in Sydney from Hobart today after clinching their place in the tri-series finals with a comfortable win over the Sri Lankans.

They are taking two days off from training in order to freshen up ahead of the best-of-three series.

Team manager Dr Bimal Soni said there was no need to take the matter further following Hayden's comments, given that a letter of complaint had already been lodged with ICC match referee Jeff Crowe.

"We want to play cricket, and it is all in our letter to the match referee, and with what Hayden said our stance is vindicated," Dr Soni said today.

"This sort of thing should not happen but we've decided to take it in our stride and want to get on with preparing for the finals."

Hi,

I think its just part of the game plan by Australians so that they can get psycological advantade over the Indians and they can have good command in the game by hving upper hand.

well its just the part of the game but some times they are crossing their limits and useing bad words i mean more than bad. its not helping to keep the game charm anymore. people hate to see it. and not only indians or aussi guys every one should stop it.