In England someone threw jellybeans on the pitch while Zaheer Khan was batting and that pissed him off. He thought it was Kevin Pieterson and threatened him waving his bat. He was smart enough to not actually hit anyone but England paid the price of spilling beans on the pitch. When Zaheer got the ball, he ripped apart the English batting and played a very important role in India winning the test.
A few week later, Andrew Flintoff messed with Yuvraj Singh and he didn't have to wait too long to pay the price. In the very next over bowled by Stuart Broad, Yuvraj hit six sixes on six balls and the face of Andrew Flintoff standing at the boundary told the whole story. In the next over after conceding one more six and a four Flintoff did managed to get Yuvraj out but it was too little too late.
The players may not say anything but in their minds, at one time or the other, they would have blamed Andrew Flintoff more than Yuvraj Singh for ousting them from the tournament. While they are packing their bags, they must be thinking that they should have packed the bags of an injured Andrew Flintoff and sent him home instead of playing him and maybe, just maybe, they would have made it to the semis.
The attitude of the Indian players have changed since Sourav Ganguly became the captain of the team as he showed them how to be aggressive, and not just in their game. One could see that instead of turning the other cheek, the players are giving it back to the opposing team. The good thing is that the players are very quite sensible and don't do anything rash after being provoked and they are using the aggression in the best possible way, by taking the match away from the other team.
The change in the England team is also evident. For years they have been blaming the Aussies for sledging and now they are doing the same. Once they see things are not going their way on the field, they start sledging in frustration. See this in comparison to the attitude of South African team where Greame Smith congratulated Chris Gayle for his impressive innings when he got out.










