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India resume tour

CA defends players' attitude

Cricket AFP, Sydney
India resumed their crisis-hit cricket tour Wednesday as Australian officials brushed aside criticism of the national team, saying the world's top side piays tough Test cricket -- "not tiddlywinks".
After staying put in Sydney in protest at spinner Harbhajan Singh's three-match ban for racism following the explosive second Test, the Indian team finally travelled to Canberra to prepare for a scheduled tour match.
Their move followed frantic efforts by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to save the tour, including dumping West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor from a Test series soured by bitter disputes between the two sides.
The Australian players have been hit by a barrage of criticism from the Indians, Australian sporting heroes, local media and the public for arrogance and unsporting behaviour during the Test that ended Sunday.
But Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland on Wednesday defended the team, saying their uncompromising play was what the public demanded.
"The Australian cricket team plays the game tough, tough and uncompromising" he told reporters.
"Test cricket is what is being played here. It's not tiddlywinks."
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said it decided to go ahead with the tour after the ICC's
intervention, although it still wanted the "unjustified and patently illegal ban" on Harbhajan dropped.
In a sign that tensions could again flare, secretary Niranjan Shah warned the board would "review the tour and all other developments continuously".
Harbhajan allegedly called Australia's only black player Andrew Symonds a "monkey" but the Indians say the accusation, reported by Australian captain Ricky Ponting during the second Test in Sydney, is "obnoxious and baseless".
The ICC has said Harbhajan will be allowed to play the final two Tests in Perth and Adelaide pending a ruling on his appeal against the three-Test ban.
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Australia's Brad Hogg is meanwhile facing a ban of up to four Tests after being charged with making an offensive remark to India's captain Anil Kumble and vice-captain Mahendra Singh Doni.
The match was also marred by umpiring bungles from Bucknor and ended with Kumble branding the Australians unsporting, overshadowing the hosts' recordequalling 16th straight Test win.
ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed admitted the highly respected Bucknor was "the meat in the sandwich" in the row but said his removal at India's insistence did not set a dangerous precedent allowing teams to demand the sacking of officials.
"What we have here is a unique situation; we've got allegations of racism, we have unhappiness with umpires, players being suspended, we've got an international incident that's running out of control," he told public radio.
"We need to get it back on track, one of the ways we can do that is to get a new umpiring team in place, I don't think we'll have those circumstances again. If we do. then it'll be dealt with at that time."
However, Australian media,
who had earlier rounded on their own cricket stars, were incensed at the "blackmail" of the ICC by India, which wields significant financial clout in the sport.
"Bullies prosper and sport suffers," the Daily Telegraph headlined an editorial describing the BCCI as "the powerful new rajahs of world cricket".
The Australian newspaper said in an editorial headlined "Time to stop whining and play the game" that "the Indian board’s stance amounts to attempted blackmail and it cannot be tolerated". It added: "Holding the game to ransom in such a way is arrogant and bad sportsmanship."
After arriving in Canberra, Indian team manager Chetan Chauhan said of the bitterness produced by the Sydney Test: "We have left that behind.
"They can play thanks to the efforts of the BCCI and also it's very nice to have the ICC come together and hopefully everything will be settled and we will play good cricket."
The Indians were due to have a light training session at Manuka Oval late Wednesday ahead of a three-day game against an ACT Invitational XI startingThursday.