An early burial for the trust deal - Hogg had reportedly called Sourav a b*****d and the former India captain had retorted by asking him to “f**k off”

Perth: The pre-series pact between India and Australia with regard to players adhering to the spirit of the game has been scrapped. The bhai-bhai deal agreed to by Ricky Ponting and Anil Kumble in the presence of match referee Mike Procter and the umpires in Melbourne was called off by mutual consent after the two captains met ICC Chief Referee Ranjan Madugalle here.

“It’s been scrapped, as of yesterday (Monday). That wasn’t the way I wanted to play, but the feeling through the Indian team, and probably not just Anil’s thoughts on it, were that they would like it to go back and be in the hands on the umpires on the field,” Ponting said. “I’ve just had a chat with the umpires out on the ground now about the whole thing and they’ll be endeavoring to make the call between themselves on the field rather than referring everything. That’s the way it’s going to be, I think, for the rest of the series,” he added.

Kumble, who appeared to be somewhat surprised by Ponting’s assertion, said: “Obviously, we wanted it reviewed after the Sydney Test. We had put across our views to the match referee and left it to his discretion.” Kumble, however, is happy to go back to the good old ways. “Certain things are best left to the umpires, third umpire and the match referee. As it is, the players and umpires are under pressure out in the middle. There is no need to burden ourselves with more. I think these things are best handled by the match officials,” Kumble said. Why Aussies called up Sourav as their witness: It now transpires that Brad Hogg had also abused Sourav Ganguly during the first innings in Sydney.
Hogg had reportedly called Sourav a b*****d and the former India captain had retorted by asking him to “f**k off”. The matter had ended there. Under pressure to save their mate, the Australians held a brain-storming session and came up with the idea of calling in Sourav as a witness for the hearing before Procter.

The Australians’ logic was simple: Kumble and Dhoni were called the same name by Hogg but Sourav did not obviously construe the word as an abuse, so Hogg should be let off. It is a pity that we will never know whether the Australian ploy would have worked because it was never put to test after Indians withdrew the charge against Hogg.

Saurav be careful to open your mouth next time???

Counting on experience: Meanwhile, Kumble is banking on the experience of his players to counter the challenge of a lively Perth pitch. “Sure there is bounce and pace for the bowlers but we have the quality and experience. It does take some time to get used to this sort of pitch but it’s more mental than anything else,” he said. Kumble, who hinted that Virender Sehwag would open the innings, said the team would revert to the old batting order with Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman dropping down the order. “Sehwag would come in. It would be a regular batting order with the quality of Rahul Dravid at No. 3 again. It would mean shuffling around a bit, but this has been our batting order for a long time,” Kumble said, adding that Sourav, who was down with high fever, would be fine to play the game. Kumble also expects his bowlers to deliver in windy conditions. “It’s a unique situation here and it appears for the moment that I would be mostly bowling into the wind,” Kumble said. “It is up to our bowlers to lift their game.”

Sumit Mukherjee TNN excerpt for TOI

Back up Kumble back up!!!!

What will speak BCCI money power or the ICC rules.. What do you think..