Record-chasing Aussies face battle to win respect

Even a nation which pursues sporting success as single-mindedly as Australia appears to understand that in the Third Test against India, the fond idea of winning at any cost has to be binned.

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It has become a critical examination of a sport seemingly losing sight of its soul and spirit amid this ugly, anarchic series and the most successful team on the planet have to take the lead in helping cricket rediscover its dignity and sense of values.

"We take the spirit of cricket very seriously," wrote captain Ricky Ponting yesterday, defending his men before a nation in his newspaper column in The Australian.

"We are determined to ensure we are not only remembered as a good team but one respected throughout the cricket world for the way we play."

If that is true, then Australia demands the reinvention begins right now.

For whether Harbhajan Singh did or did not racially abuse Aussie all-rounder Andrew Symonds in the Second Test at Sydney remains an unresolved matter of ultimate division between the two sides, there has been surprisingly widespread agreement that it was the behaviour of Ponting's team which sparked the conflagration.

The same old sledging cloaked beneath the faux respectability of mental-disintegration, the claims for dubious catches, the dissent when they knew they had been dismissed, Symonds's brazen openness in revealing how he knew he was out caught behind but didn't walk and the OTT celebrations after their win without even acknowledging the deflated opposition.

It wasn't new but it was all very dispiriting and Australia seemed, on the whole, deeply unimpressed.

Luminaries from ex-Test players like Geoff Lawson to Olympian greats like miler Herb Elliott concurred with the criticism from Sport Australia's Hall of Fame that the "desire to win at all costs is beginning to blur their moral compass".

So, is Ponting really going to take all this damning stuff on board? Certainly, he has made a few of the right noises and suggested the air had been cleared between the two sides after meeting with his Indian counterpart, Anil Kumble.

Yet Ponting's column in The Australian still smacked of a man who even now can't quite comprehend why his compatriots had turned on him when, in his mind, there should only have been celebration about an enthralling last-gasp win in Sydney. He wrote: "I have been surprised by the reaction of some in the broader community who believe we did not play that amazing Sydney Test in the spirit of the game. I believe there are no glaring issues we need to address."

There was not a hint of an apology in all this and not much contrition either.

Instead, Ponting only felt peeved that, rather than be applauded for reporting Harbhajan's alleged "monkey" taunt at Symonds, many Aussie observers reflected, while agreeing that racism could not be tolerated, that it was his team and their predecessors who had created the climate of sledging which was always going to tip over into this sort of ugliness.

India have not been blameless in this shambles - their cricket board's role in helping oust umpire Steve Bucknor from the series is nothing to be proud of - but the onus is on Ponting's men to prove that it is possible to deliver his much-touted "hard, uncompromising cricket" without the cheating, the theatrics and the poisonous chatter.

It should not be too late for them to prove world record-breaking cricketers can also be champion sportsmen.

Aussie spinner Brad Hogg, who had been facing a disciplinary charge until India dropped the complaint, has been left out in favour of fast bowler Shaun Tait.

Prolific Aussie opener Matthew Hayden has been ruled out tomorrow due to a hamstring injury, allowing Chris Rogers to come in for his Test debut.