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Dileep Premachandran has written an excellent article on cricinfo about the farcical sledging controversy that has arisen out of the current India-Australia ODI series. Whilst everything he has written is quite accurate and relevant, i think he has missed the main point.

when the west indies were the undisputed world champions in the 70's and 80's, they were respected, not just for their cricketing talent, but truly respected as gentlemen, the sort of respect that the current australian team craves and probably feels entitled to. yet their offensive on-field behaviour and sledging antics have ensured few people appreciate them beyond their admittedly awesome cricketing abilities.

when the west indies were champions, young cricketers around the world looked up to them as role models. viv richards, gordon greenidge, michael holding, joel garner and co. inspired a whole generation of young cricket players in the 80's- and what role models they were. a generation later, in the mid-late 90's, australia replaced the west indies at the top of the heirarchy. but they have not exactly been the most complete role models- sure they're great cricketers, perhaps even better than clive lloyd's team, but their unsporting behaviour and hypocrisy have caused as many headlines as their cricketing successses.

so moving forward into the 21st century, when the australian team walks out to play against india, and particularly guys like sreesanth and harbhajan, they see a reflection of themselves and are decidedly uncomfortable with it. these behaviours have been inspired by the champions australian team- this, of all things, is their legacy to world cricket. and that i think is the root cause of the whole unpalatable affair being played out in india at the moment. this sort of thing would not have been seen in 80's and 90's, when the great west indians were the leaders of the cricketing world.