Going by some of your fellow countrymen's comments, Sehwag's comments were perfectly acceptable :sarcasm
I can't stand up for their comments. But I do think Sehwag's comments have been taken a bit too far. If you read the Cricinfo article that was published immediately after Sehwag's comments were made, you would understand what I mean.
Sehwag is far too uncut/rough to be a public figure for the Indian cricket team. It's similar to how George W. Bush was perceived to be a poor leader for the US. He is not exactly politically correct. Being the captain of a team such as India is a very political position and being the captain of any strong international team requires you to maintain some level of professionalism.
But realize that Sehwag isn't the regular captain for India. It is his no-nonsense, if-the-ball-is-there-to-be-hit-hit-it methodology in cricket that he has used in these interviews and it's made for bad PR. If anything, this is a failure on the part of the Indian team management on advising what Sehwag should/shouldn't be talking about.
And finally, I challenge you to convince me that there would be this sort of uproar, especially at PC, if India wasn't the most disliked team in world cricket right now. Every team that has played Bangladesh (except for Zimbabwe and West Indies) have come in with lesser intensity and an air of arrogance. Hell, England just named a team without their regular captain! Isn't that arrogant? No, it's not, it's just the reality that Bangladesh is going to provide less of a challenge than an Australia or a South Africa. There's nothing arrogant about that--that's just reality.
To summarize, my opinion is that what Sehwag was attempting to say is that Bangladesh would really have to up their bowling above their average limits to win the Test match. They definitely achieved some of that in the first innings (although, by Shakib's own assessment, they were still short of their best). What he ended up saying made him look like an arrogant tool and the fact that he stuck to his statement didn't make him look any better, even though he is so far correct in his rather raw pre-series analysis.
sohum added 5 Minutes and 51 Seconds later...
He might be complaining, he might be just telling it to us or he might be just trying that 15 minutes of fame but that is not the issue. Calling someone monkey or bastard is going too far tbh but calling a 21 year old a schoolboy even if he looks like one, is idiocy and unprofessionalism at its very best. Which 20+ person would like to be called as a schoolboy?
It's unprofessional sure, but what sledging is professional? You don't sledge someone to make them feel good about themselves. Take this interaction from an Australia-India series between Parthiv Patel and Steve Waugh:
When Steve came (Steve?s last test match) to bat, Parthiv said, ?Come on, just one more of the famous slog-sweeps before you finish? Steve-?Respect Me?for when i made my test debut You were still in your nappies?.
I don't recall (maybe my memory has failed) Parthiv have a cry about it in the media following the match. To summarize, I don't think Rahim really copped a bad sledge. I mean, he answered with his bat, didn't he? Players like Sachin and Ponting get sledged all the time, at least they did early in their career. They didn't run to the media to talk about it, though. The unwritten rule in international cricket is what happens on the field stays on the field. The only times it leaves the field is when the words were nasty enough or went over the limit, and I don't think this is one of those cases.
