London: Mahendra Singh Dhoni's insistence to press charges against James Anderson today came under attack from the British media which said it "smacked of opportunism" and the exoneration of the paceman was "humiliation" for India.
The Judicial Commisioner Gordon Lewis found both Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja not guilty in an alleged pushing incident involving the two players after a marathon six-hour hearing.
"... a finding that represents clear humiliation for India and their captain MS Dhoni, who initiated proceedings after a spat between the two at Trent Bridge," wrote the Daily Telegraph under headline, 'India humiliated as England's James Anderson in clear'.
The paper went on to describe India's tactics were aimed at taking revenge on Anderson for past incidents. "It is a chastening verdict for cricket's leading power.
...India's players have long thought Anderson's boorish sledging to be unacceptable and their admission probably weakened their case here which smacked of opportunism to get the bowler for past misdemeanours."
"Dhoni's persistence with the charge, after the two boards had instructed the players to sort it out, made it look like a personal crusade for which Duncan Fletcher, India's coach, in a rare misjudgment, backed him," the Daily Telegraph wrote.
"You cannot hope to get a player banned (the intended outcome once India had lodged a level three complaint) for being annoying, that is a separate matter, and with no independent witnesses and no video evidence for the alleged spat in the Trent Bridge pavilion (which India claimed to have) Lewis clearly found there was no case to answer," the paper wrote.
