Maybe Hussain just loves Donkey in Shrek

So Nasser Hussain has gone ahead and said it. Again. The former England captain compared the fielding of some of the Indian cricketers to ‘donkeys’ during the lone Twenty20 match between India and England in Manchester on Wednesday. A comment that has evoked some sharp reactions in the media and among former cricketers. The BCCI is going to raise a ruckus about this, perhaps rightly so, and Hussain will probably lose his job as commentator with ESPN. That’s the worst that could happen. Nothing else. The choice of words may have been wrong but there is no denying that some of the Indian fielders do move like pack animals at times – slow and steady, fearing nothing but the selector’s whip. Hussain’s mistake here is that he, being a former England captain and all that, should have realised that if ‘monkey’ could be racist, then so can ‘donkey’. [caption id=“attachment_75457” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Hussain’s mistake here is that he, being a former England captain and all that, should have realised that if ‘monkey’ could be racist, then so can ‘donkey’. Reuters.”]  [/caption] So after a quick search on Google, looking for ‘donkey racist overtones’ and coming up with nothing, one can at least believe that this won’t escalate into a racist debate. Hussain was after all born in Chennai, so we are not going that way, thankfully. BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla said that the Board would look into the reported “donkey” comment of Nasser Hussain. “Hussain’s comment was totally uncalled for. One should adopt restraint while making observations about players. Commentators should not make such comments. We will definitely look into it,” Shukla told reporters outside the Parliament. “Every player has to be respected irrespective of his performance. I don’t think this comment was appropriate.” Hussain’s comment came after Parthiv Patel misjudged a Kevin Pietersen’s catch off Munaf Patel’s bowling. “I would say the difference between the two sides is the fielding. England are all-round a good fielding side. I do believe that India have few…3 or 4 very good fielders and one or two donkeys in the field still,” he had said. Hussain has always been a bit of a outcast — smug… aloof and perhaps he’s realised that provocation sells. But is it enough reason for us to be provoked or are we just looking to vent after watching India get hammered in the Tests and then the T20 too. If India were winning, most of us would have probably not even blinked, so why is this becoming a big issue now? The truth is that India is a bad fielding side, even Mahendra Singh Dhoni tells us every chance he gets. The Test team is bad, the ODI and T20 is still a little better. But if Hussain had actually said ‘snails’ instead of ‘donkeys’ would we have even bothered? Hussain didn’t even name the players he was talking about but we could all probably guess who he was talking about. Yes, the choice of words wasn’t exactly diplomatic but here’s one question: How many of us have abused the Indian team in a manner that would have put even the donkeys to shame? Probably most of us have and never cringed about it. And look at it the other way, Donkey in Shrek is lovable. Maybe, just maybe, Hussain really loves Shrek.