Top 5 rules v Spirit of Cricket moments

The debate about Spirit of Cricket polarizes public opinion like none other. The Spirit of Cricket is basically the standard of conduct expected from players of the so-called gentlemans game, but the fact is that it can begrossly misused depending on convenience.There is often public outrage when the Spirit of Cricket issupposedly violated by a team,despite the fact that the actions of the team might be perfectly acceptable as per the laws of the game. Here are 5 such instances:

#5 Michael Clarke\'s catch against India in Sydney

The Test series between Australia and India in 2008 is possibly one of the most controversial series ever played. Apart from the ‘Monkeygate’ involving Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh, there were a number of poor umpiring decisions that compounded matters. One of them was when Michael Clarke claimed to have cleanly caught Sourav Ganguly during the infamous Sydney Test match.

There had been an agreement between Anil Kumble and Ricky Ponting, the two captains, prior to the start of the series that the fielder’s word would be accepted when it came to contentious catches.

While that was absolutely fine, what irked the Indians was the fact that Clarke asserted to have caught Ganguly at 2nd slip before the ball bounced, despite television replays suggesting otherwise. The two umpires, instead of going to the 3rd umpire, decided to take Clarke’s word at face value, much to the annoyance of Kumble, who later made the claim that “only one team was playing in the spirit of the game”.

#4 Inzamam-ul-Haq obstructing the field

Inzamam-ul-Haq is notorious for being dismissed in strange ways, and perhaps there were none stranger than his dismissal against India in an ODI in 2006.

Inzamam was dismissed after he fended off Suresh Raina’s throw from mid-off with the bat while he was still out of his crease. The umpires gave him out as he was obstructing the field. The former Pakistan captain was livid at the decision and criticized the Indian players after the match for making an appeal. He went on to add that his dismissal for obstructing the field, while within the rules, was against the spirit of the game.

#3 Jos Buttler mankaded

The latest controversy surrounding the Spirit of Cricket occurred just a couple of months back, when Jos Buttler was mankaded, i.e., run-out at the non-striker’s end because of backing up too far, by the Sri Lankan off-spinner Sachithra Senanayake in the 5th ODI of the series in Birmingham.

Buttler was repeatedly taking a head start at the non-striker’s end. Senanayake, noticing the wicketkeeper-batsman’s inclination to back up too far, gave him a polite warning at first. The 23-year-old, though, did not heed the warning and continued to wander out of his crease, leaving the offie no option but to run him out.

While the criticism should have been directed towards the batsman for trying to steal a couple of yards, it was the Sri Lankan team, instead, that was ridiculed for behaviour that was apparently contrary to the spirit of the game. In fact, the Islanders, if anything, were unnecessarily courteous by giving Buttler a warning before running him out.

#2 Ian Bell at Trent Bridge

Ian Bell, who was on 137 and batting beautifully, walked off for tea during the Trent Bridge Test against India in 2011 on the assumption that a shot from Eoin Morgan, his batting partner, from the last ball before the tea interval had gone for four. However, the ball hadn’t hit the boundary rope; the fielder Praveen Kumar collected it and threw it back.

Bell, not realizing his stupidity in walking off before the ball was called dead, continued walking in the direction of the changing rooms. The fielder standing beside the stumps, smartly, removed the bails, and the umpires declared Bell to be run-out.

India’s actions were completely within the rules of the game, yet they were raucously booed by the viewing public. Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss, the then England coach and captain, decided to walk into the Indian changing room and requested MS Dhoni to reconsider their appeal. Dhoni, wary of the backlash that might be coming his team’s way, decided to take back the appeal, thereby allowing Bell’s naivety to go unpunished.

#1 Bodyline

Bodyline, or fast leg theory, was a tactic employed by the England team during their Ashes tour of Australia in 1932-33 in order to basically curtail the genius of Don Bradman. Douglas Jardine, England’s captain, came up with the tactic whereby he had 4-5 fielders behind square on the leg side at all times and ordered his bowlers to bowl short-pitched deliveries on the line of leg stump.

The tactic, though extremely effective and completely within the rules, was frowned upon by one and all and led to a lot of ill-feeling between the two sides, prompting Bill Woodful, the Australian captain at the time, to come up with his famous quote, “There are two teams out there. One is playing cricket and the other is not”.

The ICC eventually changed the rules, allowing a maximum of only 2 fielders behind square on the leg side, to prevent the possibility of such a tactic being used again.