Harbhajan's colourful history is confusing
The controversies just don’t seem to die. Is Harbhajan the “obnoxious weed” a sinner or one more sinned against? If one follows the colourful history of this talented player, one is confused. Dispassionately reviewed, Harbhajan, for all his obvious talent and achievements, has given quite a few glimpses of being as much a sinner as one who has been sinned against.
Just as one can rave about several of his match winning performances, one can equally be disquieted by his demeanors. In two home series 2000-01 against Australia and 2002-03 against West Indies he was the Man of the Series with 32 wickets in six innings against Australia and 20 in four against the West Indies. His 7-87 against South Africa at Kolkata in 2004–05 and 7-62 and 3-79 at Ahmedabad against Sri Lanka are rated very highly.
In fact, his spells at Calcutta and Chennai against Australia in 2000-01 are rated in Wisden’s top 100 bowling performances of all times. At Calcutta, he took 7-123 and 6-73, reducing Australia from 193-1 to 252-7 including a hat-trick (Ponting, Hayden and Warne) and at Chennai, Australia slumped from 340-3 to 391 due to an astonishing spell of 6-26 by Harbhajan.
Who can forget his 5-31 spell at New Delhi against England in an O.D.I. which ensured an Indian victory?
And yet there has been a dark side to Harbhajan. Apart from his questionable action which resulted in scrutiny twice – once cleared by Fred Titmus and yet again when the umpires (Mark Benson of Sydney “fame” being one of them) reported him for his “doosra”, he was cleared yet again by ICC who found the degree of elbow bend within the permissible limits.
Harbhajan and Ponting had clashed in Harbhajan’s very first international series for which Harbhajan was fined by the I.C.C. In South Africa, he was one of the Indians suspended for a match for over appealing; he was then fined by the I.C.C. for abusing an umpire in Bangladesh and then in an O.D.I. at Hyderabad, he was again hauled up for showing Ashwell Prince his way to the pavilion. And finally the fine by I.C.C. for using abusive language in Australia lately. There was also the expulsion by Hanumant Singh, Director, National Cricket Academy, on disciplinary grounds, when Harbhajan was training under Prasanna and Venkataraghavan.
Total Comments: 20
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Posted : By amitabh
Narottam you started with your analysis of Harbhajan and Punjabis but ended up bashing the aussies. This is too old and we have read enough articles on it. I thought you will write something on Sreesanth also. Harbhajan is from Punjab and Punjabis are bit temparamental, emotional and as you said "in your face", I agree but they are not silly to to show thier temparament without being provoked. I agree that average Punjabis get provoked rather easily, comparatively speaking. It is here I feel and firmly beleive that Sreesanths role should also be probed thoroughly. He certainly did something during the course of hte game which promted Harbhajan to give him in/on his face. And it is because if this that your fantastice article lost bit of direction. Otherwise i agree 200% with you.
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Posted : By Abhik
I completly agree with DR NAROTTAM about his comment on Habhajan. He is very talented and has done so much service to his country that one cannot forget it. But as a player he should always have a sportsman spirit to fight against all odds. The behaaviour shown by him in the recent past not only depleted his popularity but also has thrown mud in the face of cricket.
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Posted : By Anand
can you get over Aussies please...If you look at umpiring mistakes then we would not have won T20 in mumbai vs Australia. It was in same sydney, Pointing said catch from dravid was not clean which cameras could not catch correctly. Aussies are world champions for last 20 years and surely we played well in Australia as we expected to be 4-0 whitewash. misplaced nationalism is not going any where. current T20 again proved it is Aussies all the way with some indians not even matching them. So get over the hate Aussie notion created by media. If Aussie were to target, they would have targetted Sachin. why not ? who single handedly won a test match and one day series. Everywhere he went to bat, all aussies gave him standing ovation. Some bunch of cricket officials are making millions out of misplaced nationalism and now Regionalism in T-20.
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Posted : By vinay
The real problem to all this controversy is the fact that Bhajji is a fighter and never gives up and emotionally shows this. Whereas the Aussi''s are sore losers not being able to accept defeat by a better performance. As a result they want to demoralize the opponent with off field activities putting them of their game. I believe personally this is a form of cheating very cunningly delivered!
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Posted : By C L Garg
I have been following Dr. Narotam Puri''s Commentary since long. I was even a fan of his father Sh.Dev Raj Puri. In these day''s of Bikini cricket, Radio commentary is a casuality.
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