Why do Indian experts attack Pakistani cricketers?

Siddhu and Bhogle have no right to make baseless allegations against Pakistan cricketers. Stop hating!

Experts are supposed to be unbiased, and should refrain from making baseless judgments until they have considered all the facts. I am sorry to say that Indian experts seem incapable of doing this when it comes to Pakistan cricket.

Cricket analysts like Navjot Siddhu and Harsha Bhogle have seized every opportunity to hurl mud at Pakistani cricketers. And the less said about the Shiv Sena, whose total political agenda seems to be centered on evoking anti-Pakistan sentiment in India, the better.

Case in point - Pakistan’s nerve-tingling game against the Canadanian minnows.

"Those math-fixing Pakistanis..."

After Pakistan turned in a below-par batting performance on a difficult pitch, cricket expert on Star News Navjot Siddhu said  (I am paraphrasing here) that Pakistan had batted like they were playing against the West Indian attack of the 1980s. He added that if they bowled the same way, rumours of match/spot-fixing might surface again.

Sure, our team have made cheating our prime pastime, but could Mr Siddhu have just held his tongue until after the game? Could he not have waited for Pakistan to show the world that they were indeed not up against the Windies of 1980s?

How would he respond if a Pakistani cricketer said that India had fixed a match, only on the evidence that Sehwag had skied a seemingly routine shot or that Tendulkar had been involved in a dubious run-out?

I am sure he would consider the comments insulting. This is exactly how Pakistani fans feel about his comments.

Tweeted bias

The second absolutely biased observation came from Mr Harsha Bhogle. He rushed to the aid of Canadian player Balaji Rao after he was bounced by Umar Gul and heated words were exchanged between him and Ahmed Shehzad.

Bhogle termed Shehzad’s behavior unacceptable on Twitter and said Umar Gul should have thought about bowling a bouncer to a no 10 batsman. What he failed to take into account was that Rao had started the war of words long before the incident in question occurred, a fact which is documented in Cricinfo’s match reports.

If I were to repeat what Balaji Rao said to Shehzad, I might be banned from writing for any website forever!

I don’t blame Shehzad for giving back as good as he got, and footage of the incident with Rao’s comments support my claim.

Maybe I am biased too! But cricket fans have enough real drama we do not need pointless allegations thrown at us every time one of our fielders drops a catch or gets out for duck.