Defending champions India were defeated by Australia in the semifinal of the 2015 cricket World Cup in Sydney on Thursday.

India's dream run in the tournament met an abrupt end as the quick fall of wickets made the target all the more distant.

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But even if India lost this match, let's come together to wish this team good luck and not make cruel criticism just because they couldn't play as good against a clinical Australian team. (Media, fans attack team)

South Africa's former cricketers stood by their team in a great act of sportsmanship

The other day, when South Africa lost the semifinal against New Zealand, it was heartening to see how former South African cricketers stood by the side of the team of AB de Villiers which was in tears after yet another shock exit from the big semifinal. Pat Symcox's open letter to de Villiers in which he congratulated the team for the "amazing entertainment" was an excellent act of sportsmanship to console a team which had the potential to win the tournament.

Even New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum and former England skipper Michael Atherton said it was not right to call South Africa chokers. The latter saluted de Villiers' men for the character they showed on the field in an article and said it was not right to ignore their true effort on the field.

Can Indian supporters do the same?

Can Indian fans do something similar if India lose today? The team did not lose a single match till the semi-final. It was no mean achievement for a team that had not won a single match in the entire tour of Australia till that point of time. One loss in the knock-out stage doesn't make the team any worse, let's understand.

Former SA cricketers backed the team after their SF loss, can we learn?

One could see how Anushka Sharma, the actor girlfriend of cricketer Virat Kohli, was being bullied in filthy terms on social networking site like Twitter. Is it really fair to target the actor for Kohli's failure and India's bad day in the office on Thursday? Why do we make ourselves look such a pathetic lot by revealing such a chauvinist mindset?

We have a rich cricketing history but we still haven't grown the necessary culture of respecting our sporting heroes. We still haven't learnt to accept defeat as we do after winning and belittling our opponents.