Melbourne: Intentionally or inadvertently, Sourav Ganguly continues to rub Australians the wrong way and the media in Australia poured vitriol on the former India skipper, accusing him of indulging in delaying tactics to ensure the Bangalore Test ended in a draw.
The popular belief here is that Australia were destined to win the Bangalore Test but the existing light rule, coupled with Ganguly's delaying tactics, denied Ricky Ponting's men victory in the first of the four-match Test series.
A member of the 'National Nine News' sports team took a potshot at anyone and everyone but was particularly harsh on Ganguly, whom he described as a "serial offender".
"Serial offender Sourav Ganguly firstly persuaded the umpires to go off. Then when play resumed, Ganguly made Australia's fielders and partner VVS Laxman wait an eternity because he'd apparently 'forgotten to put his thigh pad on'.
"Please! Can't you be timed out in this game?" he wrote.
According to him, the spectators were the obvious losers in the entire exercise.
"The players got something out of it. Pedantic officials got their moment of the glory. But billions of fans and more importantly – the game itself – got nothing out of this farcical finish in Bangalore," he remarked.
Criticising umpire Asad Rauf and Rudy Koertzen, the writer said, "With the match in the balance, a crucial hour's play on the final day was lost, with not one, but two stoppages for bad light – when at times the sun was shining! Umpires strutted about like Emperor Penguins, holding out their light metres – a device that like performance enhancing drugs should be banned."
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