Come back home, India tells its players

Hindustan Times Cfore survey shows that nine out of 10 people in metros feel India should pull out of tour now. A report by Yashwant Raj. See survey's results

This country doesn’t believe in Gandhigiri any more. And it doesn’t want to be messed with. Indians want Kumble and Co to drop everything and return home. Right away.

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If there is one word that can describe the way the country feels now, it is this: disgust. And it comes through in bold letters in an opinion poll done for Hindustan Times by Cfore on Monday.

Indians are disgusted by the way their team lost the Sydney Test — done in by the umpires in the most dubious fashion— and was later hit by an outrageous racial slur controversy. This is not about cricket any more, they believe. If it was merely about winning or losing a match — no matter how humiliating the defeat. Defeats are okay, but not this.

And no one is saying: C’mon guys, it’s only a game of cricket. Let’s move on. Only 14 per cent of those polled said this was just a game. The rest said it was much more than that — it “has hurt our national pride”.

Most Indians believe umpires Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson were biased against their team. While cricket writers try to reason out the string of bad umpiring decisions (eight in all), those polled blamed it on the umpires’ bias against India.

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