Bhajji And The Aussie Snigger

With Harbhajan Singh being banned by the match referee, Farokh Engineer, for the rest of the tournament, for slapping – and according to Sreesanth, it was a slugfest – his team mate, some of the players may just be stifling their snigger. Needless to say, these would be the Aussies that were at the receiving end of not only the ‘wily as fox’ Sardar – both on and off the field – but also the kid of the ‘Mom-I-lost-my-candy’ fame, Sreesanth.
After all, it was not so long ago that Andrew Symonds and the rest of the Aussie lot were involved in a near fracas with Bhajji that was broken up only because of the presence of a cool and calm character in Sachin Tendulkar. Now, with Tendulkar in the confines of the dressing room, nursing his groin, Bhajji had a free hand, and what a good, the hand came to be used for. Now while Sreesanth does not quite resemble Symmo, the verbal ding-dong that Sree usually gets involved in, is not too far off from the mental disintegration that Steve Waugh had ensured would seep through to the gen-next Aussie cricketer, including every Indian’s crowd ‘favourite’ Symmo. Which meant that Bhajji did what he had to, and paid for it through his nose – and the rest of the parts of his anatomy as well – while the Aussie cricketers were privately smiling to themselves. ‘We told you so, didn’t we?’ they would have exclaimed.

Now, many have termed this as a slap that cost Harbhajan Singh a sum of money that equals an amount given by the formula, (bid price*number of matches he does not play)/(total number of matches his team plays in). And assuming Mumbai Indians play 14 matches – does not look too likely that they would get to the knockouts – and Bhajji would have played in all of them, this works out to be a cool – and approximate – Rs. 3 crore. Sreesanth would have almost cried out in a Dr. Dang-like manner, ‘iss thappad ki goonj…’

Now why do I say cool, is a different story altogether. Simply because, the elder Ambani would not have to shell out that much for a cricketer that looked out of form. For me, he was overpriced anyways, and the selection team at the auction could have done with the help of the Chairman of National Selectors at their side, but for now, they can heave a sigh of relief at this faux pas that may have gone in their favour. Personally, I do not even think that Harbhajan Singh is that big a crowd puller – either in a stadium or the telly – that his absence would make the people switch their sets off. Mumbai had yet to accept Bhajji as one of their own. So, from the marketability angle too, Ambani does not stand to lose too much either.

With the IPL moving into the third week, it would be interesting to watch out for the torch bearers. Harbhajan has being bid adieu. Sreesanth would, and this is still a conjecture, in all probabilities tone down to the extent of non-existence by his standards, and the Aussies have left the shores as well. Who would thus propel the Television TRPs is anyone’s guess, though my money is on Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne, two cricketers who with their dazzling talent could get the crowds in – the stadium – and in front of the telly. Time would be the best judge.