THE GAME THAT WAS

"The first time I ever met him he was the same little obnoxious weed that he is now."

This was perhaps the last thing which Matthew Hayden could've uttered in the summer of discontent Down Under. You would've guessed by now who he is referring to. Harbhajan Singh has more enemies than friends in the Australian XI right now.

Ricky Ponting's men have urged the Indians to stop whingeing. But, perhaps they have forgotten that the same rules apply to themselves. The Aussie players, and their media, have targeted the Indians right from the moment they landed in Melbourne last December. Yuvraj Singh, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh have been at the receiving end, day in, day out, one match after another.

Monkey (or Maa-ki as Harbhajan claimed later), bas****, mad boy (or bad boy as Hayden claimed later) have been the words that have been doing the rounds more than cricketing terms in the last few months.

Hayden says the Men in Blue are complaining because "they are losing every game they are playing." The other night, Hogg said that India should grow up.

"It's not tiddlywinks. So long as it's not racial they shouldn't have a problem," is Hayden's logic.

"We have youngsters in the side who will learn the art of sledging. You have to be good at it," replied Indian skipper MS Dhoni.

"Cricket can never be friendly," he added.

Allegations of dirty tricks have flying thick and fast - faster perhaps even than the toe-crushing yorkers bowled by Brett Lee.

The bad blood between the sides is there for everyone to see. Some might say, it sets the perfect stage for the best-of-three finals starting between the two sides from Sunday.

But, let’s not be so foolish to ignore the truth staring us in the face: the game, bleeding profusely right now, will never be the same again.