5 instances when players refused to take the field

No means ‘NO’Protesting is a constitutional right in a democratic country. But cricket somehow is averse to such manifestation of indignation. Questioning an umpire’s decision dishes out a fine to the player concerned. A mild change in the expression of a batsman or even shrugging of shoulders is a level one offence as per the code of conduct for players.Howbeit, there have been incidents when players and teams were pushed to the edge of their tolerance level that they threatened to forfeit the match. Injustice, indignation, discrimination and at times political influence - causes that forced players to go to the extreme of strikes during matches are manifolds.Here, we take a look at five such incidents, when players refused to take the field.

#1 Zaheer Abbas taking his team off against India in Bangalore in 1983

The first Test in the Pakistan tour of India in 1983 was heading towards an impasse, thanks to the inclement weather and the over-cautious cricket from both the sides.

Batting first, India lost all their wickets for 275 and Pakistan responded with 288 runs. By the time Pakistan completed their innings, the match was into the fifth day. India began their second innings during the second session of the final day.

Sunil Gavaskar who was braving bronchitis, which disallowed him from fielding during the Pakistan innings, came out to bat with Anshuman Gaekwad and the duo traversed to tea scot free.

Though the destiny of the match was conspicuous, Pakistani skipper Zaheer Abbas was told by the umpires that 77 overs were needed for the day, but on the final day it was four-and-a-half hours followed by 20 mandatory overs.

One of the umpires in his biography “The Burning Finger” discloses that, “I told him [Zaheer] in India all the mandatory overs had to be bowled. In England if there is no hope of a result, the mandatory overs need not be completed. In India, one has to consider the feelings of the crowd which is very volatile and can be easily aroused.”

Zaheer Abbas was discontented by what was told to him. Gavaskar told later that, “If it was his intention to disturb the concentration of the batsmen, then he failed.”

After tea, the Indian legend sensed an opportunity to notch up a hundred, which as he claims would boost his confidence. A century for him would also place him on par with Sir Don Bradman in the list of highest century scorers.

Time chugged passed the schedule close of play and 77 overs had been bowled. Hence, Zaheer took his players off the field without consulting the umpires. The umpires were now faced with a predicament. Gavaskar was queried and the century-hungry batsman responded saying that he wanted the game to continue.

The Pakistani team left the field while the Indian openers stood glued in the middle. Umpires held a discussion with the Pakistani captain, team manager and the members of the Karnataka cricket Association.

Kapil Dev tried to convince his batsmen to give up, but Gavaskar refused vehemently. “After the Pakistanis left the field, Gavaskar refused to leave the ground and dissuaded his partner Gaekwad from leaving the field, despite repeated entreaties of his skipper Kapil Dev”, said one of the umpires, Gothoskar, in his biography.

The ugly situation wound down to a situation where the umpires issued the Pakistani team a warning, whereby refusing to take the field would lead to a defeat by forfeiture.

Thus, the Pakistani team was forced back to play and they bowled and fielded sans any devotion. The field was unmoved even as bowlers bowled from both ends. Pakistan’s resignation helped Gavaskar score his century off the first ball of the last over of the day and the Pakistani skipper took his players off the field, even though 5-ball were still remaining.

There were no complaints this time as the only agitator had got what he wanted. According to Gothoskar, one of the board officials had opined, “tell Gavaskar to retire from Test cricket if he had to ‘scrounge’ for his Test centuries in this manner”.

#2 West Indies vs New Zealand in Christchurch, 1980

As the year 1979 came to a close, the West Indies had emerged to be the strongest side in world cricket having won two successive world cups and pounding the Australian side at their own lair.

The tour of Australia was followed by a trip to New Zealand which was expected to be an excursion for the Windies. However, controversy precipitated as New Zealand pipped the Calypso Kings to the post by one wicket in the first Test in Dunedin. Umpire Fred Goodall found himself in the middle of numerous controversial decisions.

It should be pointed out that Goodall was not a professional umpire and was teaching in a school for his living. The West Indies batsmen found themselves at the receiving end of a myriad of lbw calls and Richard Hadlee got 7 lbws in that match altogether.

The frothing atmosphere hit the crux when John Parker nicked Michael Holding behind, but the umpire John Hastie ruled him not out. Holding kicked the stumps down in protest, the photo of which became a cult in world cricket.

A local radio in New Zealand composed a satirical calypso berating the West Indian team. The second Test in Christchurch proceeded peacefully until the third day when umpire Goodall made a cringe-worthy decision ruling Geoff Howarth not out, despite him having gloved the ball to Murray. Even Howarth came forth about the truth stating that “I leant back to a short ball and got a thumb on it.”

Howarth would go on to notch up 147 and the New Zealand score line rocketed beyond West Indies reach. Visibly upset and agitated West Indians went back for tea and demanded the eviction of umpire Fred Goodall, who despite his preposterous howlers was unapologetic, and failure to fulfill which the Caribbeans refused to continue the match.

“The other umpire came up to me and said: "I've got news for you and it's all bad. West Indies aren't coming out." They wanted me changed there and then. But the New Zealand board stuck up for me “, proclaimed Goodall later.

The protest was brought to an end after 12 minutes of delay and the West Indian team parlayed their protest to a different dimension as they displayed a perfunctory game of cricket. They intentionally dropped catches and escorted balls to the boundary.

Rubbing salt to the wound, the next day was a rest day which allowed the West Indians group up and plot an even more serious scheme. Irked by the injustice and consequential apathy, the Caribbeans decided to abandon their tour. But the management somehow got the dope and convinced the team to continue the tour.

However, Fred Goodall’s antics seemed incorrigible. Hadlee edged Croft and as usual Goodall didn’t hear it. Collin Croft reacted to it by shouldering the umpire but later it was revealed that Croft had problems with his run-up even before the concerned match.

The Test was drawn and New Zealand managed to win the series. This defeat was incidentally West Indies’ last series loss for another 15 years. The series scarred the relationship between the two boards for some time.

#3 Sunil Gavaskar refusing to bat against Australia in Melbourne, 1981

Sunil Gavaskar once again finds himself in this slideshow as he was involved in yet another close-to-forfeiture of a Test match. Once again the series was beset with poor umpiring.

Greg Chappell must have been out for a duck in the first innings. But thanks to blind umpiring he survived. That was not all. According to Gavaskar, there were seven blatantly erroneous decisions against India.

That Australian season had already seen a hullabaloo when Trevor Chappell rolled the ball along the turf against New Zealand.

Gavaskar, truth be told, was having an awful time with the bat. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the lbw decision that went against Gavaskar when he was 70 not out, the highest he ever made in that series.

Dennis Lillee bowled low trajectory off cutter that wrapped the Master’s pad. Rex Whitehead, the umpire officiating had no problem in raising his finger. The Indian opener was shudder. He stood his ground; his arms outstretched. Aggravating the embroilment, the Lillee ran down the pitch pointing at Gavaskar’s pad.

Shaking his head Gavaskar walked. Having trudged a few metres, the epiphany struck him. He scampered back and took the non-striker Chetan Chauhan along with him towards the players’ gate. Chauhan, he was within reach of his maiden hundred had no option but to follow his senior.

India’s team manager, Wing Commander Shahid Durrani intercepted Gavaskar and tried his best pacify the situation. Gavaskar was fuming and there was no sedative that could soothe him. The master batsman disappeared and Chauhan returned to the crease with new batsman Dilip Vengarskar.

Gavaskar opined that there had never been and unhappier incident, Lillee told Cricinfo that Gavaskar “Spat the dummy right out of the pram”. Bob Simpson wrote that it was an unfortunate and indefensible act.

Nevertheless, the Test became a watershed in India’s history as they humbled the Aussies to level the series.

#4 Pakistan forfeiting the test against England at the Oval, in 2006

The perineal complain of ball tampering that is eternally adhered to Pakistan cricket followed them like a phantom into the fourth Test between England and Pakistan at the Oval. It was the fourth day of the Test match and Darrell Hair along with Billy Doctrove decided that the Pakistani team had been involved in ball tampering. Five penalty runs were awarded to England and the ball was replaced.

The Pakistanis lead by captain Inzamam-ul-Haq defied the decision and launched a protest by refusing to take the field after Test. The umpires left the field and directed the Pakistani fielders to resume play but were cold-shouldered.

The umpires once again returned after 15 minutes and on further waiting for 2 minutes, they declared England winners by forfeiture. However, Pakistan returned to the field after 25 minutes but umpires instructed them that the game was over the moment the bails were off. The Test match was abandoned and became the first Test in history to have been won by forfeiture.

Former English captain, Nasser Hussain took Inzamam’s side and said that he would have done the exact same thing. Mike Atherton chided Darrell Hair for not continuing the game after Pakistan returned to the field. Wasim Akram wanted Hair to be sacked while Imran Khan called the umpire a fundamentalist.

Later, ICC match referee Ranjan Madugalle hearing the case exonerated Inzamam from the ball tampering case citing that “I am not satisfied on the balance of probabilities that there is sufficiently cogent evidence that the fielding team had taken action likely to interfere with the condition of the ball" in his official report. However, Inzamam was handed over a 4 match ban in ODIs for bringing disrepute to the game.

TV analyst Simon Hughes alleged that “Hair was guessing and the ball was in pretty good condition when he examined it”.

Hair tendered his resignation from the elite panel of Umpires and was later banned from officiating by ICC after a two-day meeting held by the ICC.

#5 Arjuna Ranatunga taking his team off the field against England in Adelaide in 1999.

The world was divided about the legality of the legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan. Despite having through numerous rigorous session of biomechanical examinations and even having bowled with a steel brace, the sanctimonious section of earthlings refuse to accept his action.

Murali had already been no-balled in 1995/6 in Australia, but further tests proved that his action was legal. 3 years later, when Murali returned to Australia he was no-balled again. Ross Emerson in his very first international game in 1996 no-balled Murali. The Sri Lankan off-spinner resorted to bowling leg breaks and was again no-balled.

A test in Hong Kong had proved that Murali’s arm cannot be straightened owing to the congenital deformity and any apparent vision of chucking is merely an illusion. ICC cleared Murali to continue to bowl based on the findings of the Hong Kong report.

After emerging as a rival to Shane Warne in world cricket, the wrist spinning off-spinner returned to Australia to play in a tri-series in 1999.

Ross Emerson officiating in that match once again no-balled Murali both from the non-striker’s end and from the square leg position.

This infuriated Arjuna Ranatunga as he was involved in a famous finger-wagging incident with the umpires. Unable to take the prejudice anymore, the world cup winning captain took the whole team to the edge of the boundary line and threatened to forfeit the match.

The play resumed after 15 minutes as the instructions from the phone call by the board members of Sri Lanka Cricket requested Arjuna to continue the game.

However, bitterness was protracted in the match. Alec Stewart from behind the stumps remarked "Your behavior today has been appalling for a country captain" when Arjuna was batting. The keeper deliberately knocked Roshan Mahanama’s shoulders and the same batsman was offered a feign head butt by Darren Gough.

Umpires’ gory day seemed long as they failed to refer a run-out to the third umpire when Mahela Jayawardene was out of his crease and allowed Darren Gough to ball a seven ball over.

The moment proved to be salient in the young off spinner’s career as the whole of Sri Lanka rallied around him in support. The fact that he was a Tamil, ethnic tensions were prevailing at that time between Sinhalese and Tamils and Sri Lanka despite having a majority of Sinhalese united to spurn what was deemed as an insult, on the whole nation, smeared a tinge of poeticness to the whole incident and would go on to prove cricket’s power in Sri Lanka as a unifying medium.

Umpire Ross Emerson a decade and a half later acknowledged the fact that he was actually ordered by an Australian board official to no-ball Murali. Come what may, Arjuna’s gallant deed helped chisel the career of the most successful bowler in the history of cricket.