Spirit Of The Game:Will And Grace

The fallout of the condemnatory reaction to the no- ball incident has been swift in its dénouement.

Suraj Randiv has been suspended for the next game and fined 100% of his match fee.

Tillekaratne Dilshan has forfeited his entire match fee as well.

Kumara Sangakarra gets off with just a slap on the wrist – not even a perfunctory rap on the knuckles.

The Sri Lankan cricket board was quick to react and ordered an enquiry into the unsavory affair.

The Sri Lankan board comes out smelling like roses; it has been commended by the ICC for its speedy resolution of the controversy. The Spirit Of The Game has been enforced.

The same cannot be said of the other protagonists in L’affaire No Ball.

Tillakaratne Dilshan (Image via Wikipedia)

Quote of the day:For most folks, no news is good news; for the press, good news is not news. – Gloria Borger

Kumar Sangakarra still has some questions to answer. As captain , he ought to have corrected Dilshan and prevented Randiv from acting on his shouted instructions.

People do strange things in the heat of the moment; more so youngsters. It is the skipper’s duty to stand up and be counted as a man among boys.

Much as skippers would like to be considered to be ‘just one of the lads’, the truth of the matter is they are not. They are leaders, mentors, and have to lead by example.

Kumara Sangakarra has much to answer for.

Ssehwag ,despite being the wronged party, has not been a personification of poise. His outburst post the match was unbecoming, though he sung a different tune at the press conference. He then took some uncharacteristic digs at the Sri Lankans on his Twitter account.

His tweeted ramblings include gems such as “If we play with energy poise and unselfishness, we will be playing the game the right way.”,”Worry n fear just make u frazzled n unsettled. And the truth is that win or lose , life still goes on.”, “Right effort has to do with unselfishness and working to benefit the team.”. And somewhat mysteriously “It is not necessary to share everything between true friends. But it is necessary that what U share must be true”.

A studied silence would have spoken volumes.

Sports should be about will and grace. Cricketers show the former in abundance; for most of them reaching the pinnacle has been about hard work, determination and a burning desire to succeed. It’s when it comes to exhibiting the latter quality that they are found wanting.

Media facing and media fending skills are not the same as displaying equanimity and character.Our cricketers seem glib and hard-nosed.

Perhaps, its time for our cricketing authorities to look at enhancing our cricketer’s life skills; to take the hard knocks with sporting grace and kind courtesy. Perhaps, having Anil Kumble mentor the youngsters in the Indian side is not such a bad idea after all. Perhaps, such incidents will no longer blight the game and expose the venality of our sporting heroes.

Perhaps.