A Rant Against Sportsmanship

I have a choice of continuing to rant about the US or to ignore it completely and rant about something else. I prefer the later. I want to talk about the England India second Test. No I do not want to crib about the Indian team because their pathetic performance is not worth even ranting about. I want to rant about the Ian Bell incident and rant against so called sportsmanship.

We all know what happened. The Captain and the Coach of the English team convinced Indian team to withdraw their appeal. My question is what right did Dhoni have to withdraw the appeal? It was not as if it was a case of a fielder appealing for a catch taken on the bounce. Bell had walked out assuming the ball had gone over the ropes without waiting for the umpires signal. The ball was not dead yet and he was fair and square out.

I remember an ODI two years ago between England and New Zealand where NZ was making an unlikely attempt at victory. The number 9 and 10 were at the crease and the bowler Siddebottom in his follow through smashed almost deliberately against the batsman Grant who was going for the single. The batsman fell down and was so wound up that he could not even get up. The English side not only ran him out, they also did not withdraw the appeal when the onfield umpires asked them to reconsider. Finally the umpire had to give the batsman out. This incident is not so far back in the past that it has no relevance to the current situation.

The point is that now the whole world knows that the Indian team is soft. In West Indies we did not go for an easy win in the last Test prefering a draw instead. In this Test, we let a batsman who was out to come back. In the past we have let opponents run rough shod over us not only through their bowling but also through their behavior. 

The current attitude of the Indian team is not sportsman spirit but the attitude of the Indian teams of the past where we could have won prizes for being soft and well mannered and for nothing else. This decision to withdraw the appeal does not deserve to be applauded as sportsmanship because this decision actually reeks of a defeatist attitude. It reflects a team which is past caring. I will not be surprised if we actually get defeated by larger margins in the remaining two tests for a 4-0 drubbing.

This is the kind of drubbing the equity markets are receiving for the last few days. I am short and hopefully will not require to change my position for a long time.

Current Position: STT Short LTT Short

Probable trades: STT Cut short and go long above 5711

LTT Cut short above 5761