The thing that kills the game is the discrepancy between many umpiring decisions and the hi-tech replays that show that they were wrong.

The outcome of a game can easily depend on one or two bad decisions.

Is it any wonder that one team or the other is going to feel unfairly treated in most games?

We cannot expect the standard of umpiring to be any better. But let’s use the available technology to minimise the error factor.

Feelings of unfair treatment manifest themselves in animosity between teams and players, and can create enormous problems within the support base for the game as we are seeing in India at present.

Fix the administration of the rules of the game by utilising instant replays, snicko, etc…and stop fartarsing around with stupid allegations of racist slurs or offensive remarks, and the utterly ridiculous rigmarole of hearings, appeals, fines and suspensions, unless they are really serious matters.

If all those who played the game at the top level and all those who watched it, felt that the maximum effort was being put into making the actual game as fair as possible, then most negativity would disappear, and any that remained would be water off a duck’s back and not blown up into stupid media hype.

It is interesting that we expect our professional sportsmen and women to act differently to the rest of society.

The spirit of the game was changed with the advent of professional cricket. If I was a selector or promoter of the game I would not encourage players to walk - but to win. I believe their remuneration is actually tied to win / loss records.

This is the sad reality of professional sport - the greater the wins the more interest from the crowds. Once a team consistently wins the crowds increase ... more dollars flow, better sponsorships, higher salaries.

Cricket is a business - it needs to be appreciated as such, and holding onto ideals of sportmanship is something that we should encourage, but once you move into the realms of professional sport then the motivations, pressures and priorities (rightly or wrongly) are changed.

It appears to me that the main reason for complaint by the Indians, & our lefties, is the misuse, to their minds, of their racism rules, & laws.

These were designed to be used by the ethnics, to belt the europeans, [whites] about the head. That a team of european sportsmen should use it against the Indians, is just not cricket.

Wouldn't it be dreadful if the fact, that many of these ethnics are much more racist than any european ever was, was brought to light.

To loose such a weapon of self destruction would realy harm our left.
The fact that more evidence is proving that Global warming is just another figment of their of their imagination makes it even worse.

Its a bad time for the left.

Hasbeen old mate you have me! I am a lefty! bat with the left too dreadful and wait there is more!
I believe in global warming!
Ok must admit is is possible WG did not refuse to walk, but hundreds have.
Never thought this old lefty would say this but read yesterday and todays comments in the Australian, balanced and informative.
Read all the articles, then ask why India did not protest that very umpire when he got it wrong their way?
We need our country men to do it better, win and act, but India has gone overboard.
We each have our own views but surely dreadful umpiring is at the bottom of this?
Who among us thinks the Aussies lied about that name calling?
Surely too , please tell me I am right the charge against that brash young repeat offender was not that he is a racist?
But that he knowing it would hurt used a term he knew would be considered racist?

Well I'm going to jump right in... despite the fact that I don't know that much about the game, but here's my two cents worth ...

Sport in Australia used to embody some highly regarded social values:
perseverance, discipline, hard work, competition, success. And, you got the feeling that there was mutual respect amongst opponents.

And I do stress the word "mutual."

Can this still be said about any of today's sports?

Winning is so highly valued in American sports that the result of a contest seems to have become more important that the playing of it.
A century ago it might have been said, "It matters not who won or lost, but how you played the game."

Today, a much more appropriate slogan would appear to be, "Winning isn't everything' It's the only thing."

Australia tends to copy many things from America, let's hope this ethos of winning at all costs won't be one.

Having said that however, I do want to add - that India must abide by the rules of the game as well. And who knows what insults were hurled off the field to provoke reactions. They need to bear some of the
brunt as well. "Play Fair," does not only apply to one side...

Foxy: when you said "Sport in Australia used to embody some highly regarded social values: perseverance, discipline, hard work, competition, success."

I think it still does ... to be selected for an Australian team, especially one like men's cricket, is so difficult that only through achieving these values can you actually get there.

However, "feeling that there was mutual respect amongst opponents" is probably more optional in todays corporate world of sport.

Sport at the highest level is now more about tv ratings, gate takings, sponsorships and commercialism than possibly the sport itself. Already we have "bastardised" cricket to create the 20/20 entertainment fest, as we did with the One Day cricket in the 80's. This wasn't so much about improving the sport as improving the "sale-ability" of it.

Professional cricket is a business ... and as such demands business responsilities which are driven more by economic returns than social conscience or environmental impacts. Please don't mistake this interpretation of the game as my support for it, but it is the reality.

Just like our legal system doesn't necessarily deliver justice, just enforces the laws. Playing within the "laws" of the game as opposed to the "spirit" of the game is inevitable.