Oz athletes vandalise Games village

Venting their rage over the Australian cricket team’s humiliating loss to India in the just-concluded Test series, athletes from Down Under participating in the Commonwealth Games 2010 in New Delhi went berserk as they vandalised part of the athletes village.

Unable to control their disappointment at the manner in which the Indian team mauled Australia 2-0, and won the second and last Test by 7 wickets helped by a double ton by batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, the athletes flung a washing machine from one of their apartments in the games village and destroyed electrical fittings and furniture in the complex, Times of India reported.

The incidents began on Tuesday when Tendulkar scored a double hundred – his sixth – that did the Aussies in.

Policemen posted in the village say the athletes shouted slogans against the batting maestro whose performance was decisive in Australia’s historic loss when they got “brownwashed” as some of the Indian media described the 2-0 result to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Bangalore.

Although Delhi Police received a complaint, the authorities downplayed the incident, lest it snowballs into a diplomatic embarrassment for Australia which otherwise finished top of the medals table leaving India at second place by a wide margin.

The newspaper quoted police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat as saying no complaint was received. He however confirmed: “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."

An unnamed official of the games organising committee said: "We have not given any complaint and the matter has been sorted out after discussion with the Australian chef-de-mission."

However, Herald Sun quoted Australia Games team boss Perry Crosswhite who denied involvement of any of his team members in the act of vandalism.

"Crosswhite confirmed that a washing machine was thrown off the eighth floor of an Australian residential tower in the athletes’ village," Herald Sun quoted him as saying.

Crosswhite said he would be surprised if any of his athletes were involved.

He went on to blame athletes of other countries who were in the same building but the report did not elaborate on why anyone else would engage in sloganeering against Tendulkar whose pivotal role led to Australia's second consecutive loss against India.

The ABC quoted him as saying that an Australian athlete was sent home in disgrace this week. But he did not reveal the reason.