Even as England got ample rewards for their negative bowling in the third Test in Bangalore, the English media on Friday blasted their team for adopting a strategy which could hardly have been uglier against master batsman Sachin Tendulkar. Reasoning that the ploy to frustrate Tendulkar on the second day of the Test on Thursday perhaps emanated from their over emotional and misguided belief that he had acted against the spirit of the game by appealing for a handling the ball decision against Michael Vaughan the previous day, the papers said it was a shame that England stooped so low over such a trivial matter.
The fact that Tendulkar was perfectly entitled to appeal, and that Vaughan`s smothering of the ball would have been regarded as a brainstorm in a local club match, never mind the deciding Test of a series, is a truth that many England players, in a siege mentality that has developed out of an honest desire to succeed, have so far largely refused to countenance, a report in the `Guardian` said. The report said England proceeded under the belief that ultimately Tendulkar`s patience would crack even though there was precious little to support the theory.
Tendulkar is a special talent, and that talent can demand from put-upon bowlers, or captains, an extreme response - just as the brilliance of Don Bradman was the reason behind England`s bodyline theory 70 years ago, it said.
Bureau Report