The harsh truth behind fair play in cricket

The nasty spat between Sarwan and McGrath

Imagine an army of vultures hounding an innocuous zebra and then dismantling the body into smithereens and also wonder if it happens among humans, that too almost legitimately? Look no further than cricket, the world’s famous sport provided the world has only 8 countries. Also, only in this corner of the sporting world do we see disintegrating a player’s mind and spirit as an art. That art is called ‘sledging’.

Trying to get into a batsman’s skull by hurling epithets at his wife, mom, dog, etc., then getting him off the radar and back in the pavilion is one of the cheapest yet smartest ways to get a batsman out. Long gone are the days (West Indies’ era in the 1980s) when cricket was played like a gentleman’s game and seeping in are the days on the backdrop of heated lines like

Glenn McGrath vs Eddo Brandes

Glenn McGrath to Eddo Brandes: “Why are you so fat?”

Brandes: “Because whenever I made love to your wife, she gave me a biscuit.”

Here, if Brandes took umbrage and demonstrated his anger towards McGrath physically like Zinedine Zidane took it out on Marco Materazzi in the World Cup final in 2006, the culprit here would have been, quite ironically, the Zimbabwean and not the Australian. These are totally uncalled for when the only words allowed should be the ones exchanged between the bowler’s ball and the batsman’s willow.

Quite recently on the last day of riveting Test between Australia and South Africa in Cape Town, when Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander resisted Australia’s pathway to the No.1 ranking by putting on a resolute, gutsy partnership which almost saved the game for Proteas, the Aussies were quite understandably restless, biting their nails in anxiety and frustration too. There was no need of more drama when Mitchell Johnson was storming in and trying to wrap up the tail with his searing jaw-breakers and devastating toe-crushers as the very sight itself is a drama unfolding itself naturally without anything said. Michael Clarke did not need to get out of line by riling Steyn to the extent of apologizing only later when Philander was not given not out on DRS.

Getting out of line

Clarke, who should lead by an example by playing the game hard and fair, had previously done even worse against James Anderson in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane. Lots of kids look up to the cricketers in awe but when cricketers use sledging to get the batsman out, it contrives a new mode of dismissal along with the message to the aspiring cricketers that anything goes no matter how cheap it may get.

On the lighter side, no matter how many sledging incidents may have happened in the past and how many captains would say to a tail-ender, with a slinger ready to dismantle the opponent’s face with the red cherry, “get ready for a broken f***king arm”, nothing may beat the one between McGrath and Ramnaresh Sarwan. The words cannot be put up here explicitly because of the language used.

With many cricket pundits from Australia unabashedly avow that cricket is a man’s game and there is no place for the clean shaved and the spotless white flannels, string of foul words is bound to blend with the actions happening on the 22 yards. Ironically, it’s the same Aussies who boast that they play the game “fair” and “hard”.

That being said, Aussies and all the other teams unanimously stand on the same side as far as one important aspect of cricket is concerned.

Anti-UDRS and the other follies

This time the brown sheep is BCCI which bullies other teams with its huge economic muscle into playing the game unfairly. Yes, its of course unfair while the majority of the cricketing world is bent on playing the game more fairly by removing the howlers (which have the potential to turn the series on its head, let alone players’ careers) the cricket tyrant, off the field though, is equally hell-bent on playing the game otherwise.

If Sri Lanka were as perverse as the Indians and preferred not to use UDRS in the recent 1st Test vs England, they would have agonisingly lost the match in the last over of the match. Though DRS is not 100% foolproof (which system is anyway), it was still handy enough to restore justice.

UDRS will take its own time to evolve to reach near perfection or it may even never be 100% fool proof, but who cares as along as it makes sure there wouldn’t be any howlers.

Stuart Broad - Standing his ground

The whole universe knew that there was an edge from the blade of Stuart Broad’s bat which was precariously pouched by the first slip. But Aleem Dar who was the umpire thought otherwise. Broad would have walked back to the dressing room faster than Mitchell Johnson’s bouncers if Aussies had just one challenge left. Quite smartly, he stood his ground, thus not losing the ground to the opponents.

Umpires can be forgiven here for a rare aberration in their judgments, but others should have intervened and sent the England LOI captain packing. Broad knew he was out. Commentators knew it was out. Even the crowd knew it was out. More importantly, the official TV umpire knew it was out so why not consult the standing umpire and rectify the mistake?

We all know this is not a one-off incident either.

England vs Sri Lanka, Lords 2014

Broad to Rangana Herath: Just 6 more balls to see through, Herath gloved the ball to Prior and immediately walked off, not knowing the rule that he can’t be out when the bat is not part of the glove when the ball made contact with the gloves.

he was given out and it remained OUT!

Here, the Sri Lankan, being a spinner, did not have to know the rule. Again, the TV umpire should have intervened and sent him back to the crease.