'Good ball, champ, Symonds told Ishant'

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Agencies

Posted online: Tuesday , February 26, 2008 at 12:43:12

Melbourne, February 26: Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds has claimed that he was only complimenting Indian speedster Ishant Sharma on his fine bowling when the Delhi bowler misinterpreted his words and showed him a ‘send-off finger’ during the tri-series ODI in Sydney.

The incident, which sparked an unsavoury chain of events, resulted in Ishant being docked 15 per cent of his match fees and the Indian team management complaining to the match referee about the Aussies' ‘provocative behaviour’.

Symonds has told teammates he uttered, "Well bowled, champ" to Ishant before the 19-year-old mouthed off and pointed towards the pavilion, apparently misinterpreting the ‘compliment’. It was then that Symonds fired back with his own unpleasantries, a report in The Age claimed.

Australian wicketkeeping great Ian Healy said too much should not be made of the incident.

He claimed lip-readers in Channel Nine's broadcast van discerned Symonds to say: ‘Good ball, champ’.

"Whether it had a bit of cynicism in it or not, I'm not sure," Healy said. "Sharma was holding his standards pretty well, and then when he thought Symonds said something worse, he carried on in a way that is a little too personal for mine."

Both players could have behaved better, Healy felt.

He thought Sharma needed to be reminded that the send-off was unacceptable, no matter what the circumstances. But he said he did not believe the incident demonstrated residual bad blood between the sides, only that the match was fiercely contested.

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Comments - 4

show maturity by madu on 26 Feb 2008

players should not spat on each other openly .it should be left to bcci

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How funny! by Cogito_ergo... on 26 Feb 2008

Very funny! It was the same Symonds who said earlier that one should not show friendliness in the field towards the opposite side players.

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Proffessional liars by Alok on 26 Feb 2008

I think Symonds , Hayden and Ponting are more of proffessional liars than they are professional cricketers. Let us analyse the events. In the hearing of Sydney Test Racial abuse case, when judges asked Symonds what were his reservations againts Harbhajan giving an appreciative pat on Lee's bums he said in competitive cricket there was no place for appreciation of opponents , to which the Judge observed that it is his personal view and he doubts that others endorse to his values. Same Andrew Symonds takes a 180 degree turn and becomes such a nice guy that he says "well bowled champ" when he is comprehensively cleaned up by Ishant. Whom are u fooling Mr Symonds? IPL folks bought him for news worth, thats all.

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Indi and Eddie by American on 26 Feb 2008

Indi and eddie the idiots...or are you both the same 12 year old or are you a couple?

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