Aussies air dirty laundry

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Cricket loss makes Oz athletes take it out on washing machine

Rahul Tripathi, TNN, Oct 15, 2010, 12.45am IST

NEW DELHI: At the top of the medal tally and the undisputed champions of the Commonwealth Games, the Australian team, sadly didn’t show any sporting spirit when their cricket team lost the Test series to India on Wednesday.

Enraged by the humiliating loss, some athletes, according to highly-placed sources in Delhi Police, went berserk, destroying electrical fittings and furniture in their tower in the Games Village on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Not just that, policemen posted there say they also shouted slogans against batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, who played a pivotal role in ensuring India’s victory in the Bangalore match, and flung a washing machine down from the eighth floor of their tower.

Their hooliganism started on Tuesday when Sachin scored a double century. “The house-keeping staff tried to stop them but to no avail,” said a senior police officer handling security inside the Village. Stunned by the little master’s stellar performance, they first damaged electrical fittings and fixtures in their block.

On Wednesday, when India brownwashed Australian 2-0 to keep the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the Australian athletes reportedly threw a washing machine down from the eighth floor, said a senior officer. Mercifully, no one was injured.

Delhi Police, which received a complaint about this vandalism, tried to downplay the incidents to prevent them from snowballing into a diplomatic embarrassment for Australia.

On reports that some Australian athletes went berserk inside the Games Village after their cricket team lost the Test series to India, a senior officer posted there said that they have not received any complaints from Organising Committee (OC) which owns the property inside the Games Village. “Therefore, we have not registered any case,” said a senior police officer.

Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said: “No complaint has been received. We have found a broken washing machine from the block where the athletes were staying. We are trying to establish as to how the machine reached there.”

OC officials didn’t pursue the matter. “We have not given any complaint and the matter has been sorted out after discussion with the Australian chef-de-mission,” said an official. When asked whether the Australian athletes have tendered any apology, he declined any comment.

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My source on the eighth floor of that particular Village residential tower reckons it was the English rugby sevens boys who went berserk and tossed the washing machine as an after-Games party (parting) gesture.

He claims it wasn’t the Aussies at all.

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http://outofbounds.nbcsports.com/2010/10/look-out-below-at-commonwealth-games-village.html.php

includes photo of the flying washingmachine coming off the eighth floor!

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I would have thought after KL CG organising committees would have realised tower block for games villages are a bad idea. I’ve heard stories from KL of a fire extinguisher being dropped out of an appartment narrowly missing a certain marathon runner celebrating the conclusions of the games with a nude run around the block.

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Apparently the fridge landed four metres from a couple of Indians. Or an Indian couple, not sure which is more accurate. Certainly the fridge thrower needs to raise his game. Four metres isn’t really even in the genuine target area…

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haha … I think they need to take up shotput, look how far out from the building the fridge is. Imagine what their overhead throw is like!

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I think only a certain number of athletes could do that. I’m guessing it wasn’t a marathoner.

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What about all the other stuff, looks more like a clean up before the athletes arrived.

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Looking at how far it was thrown from the building, my guess is it the fridge tosser has the strength, experience and technique of someone familiar with throwing something…hammer, discus, shot or maybe javelin?

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thats a lot higher than the 8th floor!!!

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Acting in bad spirit after losing, I couldn’t imagine that! :confused:

Disgraced Oz wrestler to be locked up in Delhi CWG Games village
Australian News.Net
Wednesday 6th October, 2010 (ANI)

Australian Commonwealth Games officials have decided to lock-up silver-medallist wrestler Hassene Fkiri after he refused to shake hands with his Indian opponent and gold medal winner Anil Kumar following his defeat in the 96 kilogram Greco-Roman class wrestling championship on Tuesday.

Fkiri is also being punished for his bizarre decision to flip the bird at judges.

He has been asked to apologise to Kumar and the referee who disqualified him, and then will be forced to remain locked in the village until the end of the Games.

Ordinarily, he would have been free to return home or go sight seeing in Delhi after completing his events.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, on his return to Australia, he will be forced into a form of community service with a weekly coaching clinic at Sydney’s junior boxing world wrestling club.

Australia’s chef de mission Steve Moneghetti said the punishment was designed to give Fkiri a chance to redeem himself.

“Obviously, it was well within our rights to instantly dismiss him and send him home,” Moneghetti said.

“We considered the impact of that on the rest of his life. His actions were unacceptable for an Australian sportsman representing their country. Publicly, it didn’t look good. They’re was completely out of character, he was so motivated by the way his was performing as the match was unravelling, the persistent pressure caused him to make some poor decisions,” Moneghetti added.

“The most disappointing facet of this whole event was the fact he wouldn’t shake hands with his opponent. We play hard, but once the result is decision we play fair, it’s very embarrassing. He has disappointed the Australian Commonwealth Games team and he understands that,” Moneghetti said further.

The umpire cautioned Tunisian-born Fkiri, 36, thrice for dangerous play before being disqualified and told to leave the mat.

Australian coach Kuldi Bassi said: "I didn’t actually see anything myself but someone else told me he saw it.

Following Fkiri’s disqualification, South Africa’s Kakoma Hugues Bella-Lufu was upgraded from bronze to silver and Canada’s Eric Feunekes from fourth to bronze.

Kumar’s victory completed a clean sweep of golds for India on the first day of wrestling. (ANI)

There’s fine line between aggressive nationalism and xenophobia.

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From what I gather, this cannot be the “Aussie” fridge throwing incident. It must be a separate fridge throwing incident, or a replay.

I am advised the tower from which the publicised incident took place was Tower 21 which had only 8 floors. This tower has more. Also the publicised incident defnitely took place after sunset. Not with a blue sky.
Therefore this image of a further offence is clearly a second-rate attempt to steal the limelight from those brazen Aussies.:eek:

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Did you see the bout? He didn’t shake his opponents hand because the opponent repeatedly grAppled his head. This is against the rules due to the danger. The actions were blatently obvious and the ref chose to ignore them and, despite protests by the australian, only acted after it continued for an entire round by issuing a caution with no points deducted - the Indian ignored the caution and continued to grab the Aussies head and wasn’t pulled up on it. While I doubt he wouldn’t have shaken his opponents hand had he won, the actions of the Aussie were born out of frustration with this rather than xenophobia.