There is no doubt that it was really sad seeing India lose a match which they could have atleast drawn (realistically speaking, had all umpiring decisions been correct, India could have actually won the match). Then the racism row, something that should have never happened. Harbhajan was handed a 3 match ban instantanly (amazing, super quick judgement - Saudi style)
Be that as it may, as it is on one hand things were quite heated up. On the other hand, the Indian media seems to be adding more fuel to the fire. The effect to this "adding fuel to fire" was quite visible when we witnessed one of Indian's most famous and familiar way of protest - "burning of effigies". The media was also prompt in reporting as to how Harbhajan's mom felt her son could never be wrong (it reminds me of the then famous 'Sehwag ki Maa' days) and how a conspiracy seems to have been hatched against her son. Moreover, never mind the official confirmation from ICC or the BCCI, the media had also started speculating the fate of the tour indicating that the tour might be called off.
As if the contributions of the print media is not enough, the visual media lead by CNN-IBN (one disgusting news channel) and TIMES NOW (yuk, english counterparts of Stars News in terms of content) were quite irrepressible and tried their best to make the discussions with so called "experts" on the topic more glamorous. Would you believe it, the expert opinions of Irrrrfan Khan (I donno how many R's his numerologist had recommended) and Mandira Bedi (after whom watching cricket was never the same again) on behalf of bollywood was also taken and quoted. I really donno what bollywood has got to do with this. Tomorrow a Rakhi Sawant would come, sit in the commentary box and tell us how Sachin should be playing his sweep shots or how Saurav Ganguly should be playing his cover drives. Really disgusting. NDTV, not to be left behind, are running an "India, Come Back" campaign on their website. Come'on NDTV, never expected this from you.
I wonder where the Indian media would want to take us at the end of the day. Biased views and irrational speculations guided by a commercial motive is todays media is about. Cricket is a sport that I have followed all through my life so passionately and it is really disgusting and disappointing to hear actors like Irrfan Khan or Mandira Bedi talk about cricket.
Not surprisingly Mike Coward in his article quite aptly termed the Indian media as a partisan and ropeable.
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