Have you seen or read d story about W.I. cricket in-Fire in Babylon-I found some parts intriguing & disgusting?

That that is an interesting piece of history I never knew before. After hearing that one thing I can tell you is that the history repeats itself!

The Fire in Babylon incident reminds me the rivalry between AUS and SL back which started back in mid 1990's. It all began in SL's tour of Australia. SL team was a rising team from minnow status. SL had defeated Pakistan in Pakistan in both ODIs and tests and also won a 3 way tournament in Sarjah against the world champion Pakistan and WI, showing signs of evolution.

In that SL’s Aus tour (1995) lot of dirty things happened against SL. Sri Lankan team was accused for ball tampering; Jayasuriya was accused for using a graphic bat. All were proven fake later. Many umpire decisions went against SL which cost their victory in the world series. Lot of infield controversies between the teams such as Mcgrath calling Jaysuriya a black monkey which was mentioned in Roshan Mahanama's book. Though Mcgrath refused it, considering the hate campaign went against SL, his name calling on Sanath should be true.

The most controversial matter was Murali being accused for chucking. It was not the case of just an umpire randomly seeing a suspicious action of a bowler and accuse him for chucking. It was perfectly clear that it was just another part of the plan against SL. Undoubtedly there was a conspiracy to drag down the rising Lankan team (1995). Truth be told though I hate to say it. Some sheer racist and skin color stuff went against SL who were known as a cool headed innocent team.

No offense on Australia but it's the whole truth. This was highlighted in every media those days. This example will prove how much of an attention and effect it took in world cricket. During the Australia vs India game in 1996 WC, one Australian commentator said something mocking the Indian fans and and an Indian umpire. Then the Indian commentator sitting next to him said something like "looks like he has learned from Australian umpires in the world series (1995)!"

SL ended up winning the 96 world cup final against Australia the exact way WI took their sweet revenge. That 1996 WC final victory was exceptional for SL not just bcz it was a world cup win but bcz it came against the team who harassed SL. Australia refused to come to SL for a first round match and Sri Lanka had a huge expectation of somehow meeting Australia in the world cup. And how fated it was to be in the final of the grandest stage!!

After all those bitter memories, it taught SL to how to fight the devil, the top dog and how to stand tall against all those conspiracies. It helped SL big time to became one of the top teams in world cricket, similar to WI becoming the most dangerous cricket team on the planet after .that "Fire in Babylon" incident.

Both of those rivalries have cooled and calmed down lately. And now no serious issue between WI and AUs or SL and Aus.

Yeah I'm so glad that we don't have to witness such extremely unpleasant occurrences in cricket these days apart from few incidents. We all hate to see those kind of nasty things happening in the open or a world where we have equality, respect for all the cricketers, without a care about their color & nationality..

In that SL’s Aus tour (1995) lot of dirty things happened against SL. Sri Lankan team was accused for ball tampering; Jayasuriya was accused for using a graphic bat. All were proven fake later. Many umpire decisions went against SL which cost their victory in the world series. Lot of infield controversies between the teams such as Mcgrath calling Jaysuriya a black monkey which was mentioned in Roshan Mahanama's book. Though Mcgrath refused it, considering the hate campaign went against SL, his name calling on Sanath should be true.

I still remember reading about this in the NEWS back then.All of us in Pakistan were supporting the West Indies because Australia were decimating almost every team they faced.I still didn't have a television in the early 70s because it was too expensive ,I had this very old Radio which I used to tune into BBC commentary for that match.

There's no need to apologise though ,what's true is true.

You do have to remember that this was nearly 40 years ago. Rightly or wrongly, the standards were different back then. I was at some of the games and yes there was barracking but nothing to untoward. You make no mention of some of the sledging by the Windies against both the poms and us. Things have improved immensely since those days and we should look at the improvements and not dwell on the bad old days. People do make the mistake that it is only the white community who make racist remarks (remember monkeygate).

Well Still Some Fans Do Behave Like That In This Section ( But They Are Not Here

In This Moment).

Appreciate this nice piece of information and I will surely watch the documentary..

Speaking about this racial isues,, many people nowadays dont pay much attention to or we got no time to waste..

But there are few, still, on this YA thing as well,, specially the Muslim bashers..

Interesting people they are..

Tony

I agree with Bill P,he has put it well.For some reason the finger is always pointed at white people.I guess that we just whinge about it less than others.

What the chagrin?! Lol, I love you forever now. What a wonderful piece. Let's find Smeyer's publisher and see if we can make this work. XD