A Song of Blood and Victory: The 2008 India-Australia Perth Test
It was correct once said that cricket is a great leveller and about test cricket, it’s not inaccurate to say that the format is almost akin to life. In life, there are battles that are to be fought, like in test cricket, but very often, we are able to emerge victorious from those. Also, like test cricket, life too at times gives us the opportunity to come back from adversity and become a champion. The Third Test of 2008 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia at Perth was just such an example of this. The Perth Test itself and the series as a whole, was hanging under a dark cloud, after the ugly scenes witnessed in the New Year’s Test at Sydney, which became infamous for the “Monkeygate” saga, where Harbhajan Singh was accused of having racially abused Andrew Symonds and in a hearing before match referee Mike Proctor, he had received a 3-test match ban, which had infuriated the Indian team, which was already incensed at the atrocious umpiring they had been subjected to in that test match...