NRIs in Australia support Harbhajan

Raj Natarajan, president of the United India Association, an organisation formed by NRIs living in Australia, has come out strongly in support of Harbhajan Singh. Raj spoke to rediff.com from his home in Sydney where he has been living for the past two decades.

This is what he had to say:

"If the comment was made to an African American in another context it might be termed racist. Not in this context. Calling Symonds a monkey might be considered derogatory but certainly not racist.

It's too much for one word. I have heard Australians, the English and the South African cricketers use much stronger language on the field and they get away with it.

Pulling out of the series is too extreme a reaction. A lot of money is at stake. It will not solve the problem. I agree that the umpiring was inept and unbelievable and it looked biased because India was always at the receiving end.

The Indians put up a fantastic show in the first innings. We saw some of the best batting ever on this ground. Sachin, Laxman and Ganguly were very good.

Actually poor umpiring exasperated this whole thing. It would not have been such a big issue if India had won or drawn the match. India lost unfairly. It was like India was playing against the umpires and not against the Australians.

On the cricket field the Australians will do anything to win. For them the end justifies the means. They don't care what means they use and that includes cheating. They have the skills. They have raised the bar in cricketing skills; they should raise the moral bar too.

The Indians did everything that they could. Kumble is honest and he leads an honest team. In spite of everything he kept his cool. That is commendable. From 130-6 the Australians were allowed to get away because of the umpiring.

We cannot complain that Australians don't walk when they are out. Brett Lee once told me that 'When we are wrongly given out we walk. So why not stay when we are out and the umpire don't think so. We leave the umpiring to the umpires.'

Gilchrist has walked when he has been out but that day he was appealing even when Dravid was not out.

Don't judge the Australians by their behaviour on the field. 90 percent of Australians are fair. I just watched a survey on Fox news. 59 percent of Australians believe that Australia acted unfairly in the field. They said that India did not deserve to lose.

At the workplace and outside, the majority of Australians are fair. They call themselves the fairest country in the world. At the work place they don't care from where you come, as long as you work professionally.

As long as you integrate with them they don't act differently towards you. I have 140 people working for me from various nationalities; there is no special treatment for anyone. Everyone is the same here.

They respect India here particularly in the last 6 years as India has become an economic and technological superpower. They look to India for hi-tech expertise.

This society is great. They play cricket hard. It's not too much to ask them to play it fair".