Ban Adam from Cricket's Eden

The best praise that Adam Gilchrist received after his record making score in the finals of the ICC World Cup 2007 came from the Sri Lankan Captain Mahela Jayawardene.

He did not resort to any economy of words in praise of the Australian opener; in the same manner that he gave full honours to the Aussie team for its performance in the tournament. Mahela received the encomiums of cricket commentators for his frank comments made in the true spirit of cricket in which he spoke.

But despite his great sportsmanship did Mahela speak too soon, and have all the other praise that came Gilchrist's way in the light of his batting performance been misplaced?

The secret behind his tickling of his glove before the TV cameras after his whirlwind century that day begs the question. It would appear that he has squashed his own achievement with the use of a squash ball to bolster his grip on the bat in playing that day.

When I asked Malky Speedo of the ICC, who prefers to work slower than his name indicates, the response I got was typical. "One has to see what the Rules of the Game say about it?" "Well, what if the Rules had not even thought of Squash in Cricket?" "I'm sorry to say the matter will then have to be squashed".

What a typical ICC answer? One cannot say for certain whether that exceptional failure of the best of Sri Lankan bowlers to beat Adam Gilchrist as he was on that tour de force in Barbados was entirely due to the squash ball in his glove. But that does not mean the matter should get ruled out for want of a rule.

To me the matter is very similar to those men and women in sports who take physical enhancement drugs to bolster their performances in various sporting events.

Issue

Aacharya Pandu Nireekshana, who is known to be an expert on such matters, was very clear on the issue. "Some may say that if the squash ball was not ingested or injected into him, and therefore could not be considered for any enhancement effect on his play.

But, the fact is that from what he now declares, the squash ball was used for its enhancer effect. So, whether the Rules of the Game refer to the use of squash balls in cricket in any form or not, it would appear that he has squashed himself out of the reckoning in this matter, and is not entitled to all the glory of that squash induced batting performance.

When I asked some local media commentators on sports and cricket for what they thought of this new development, they were unanimously of the view it deserved serious inquiry, even if not covered by the Rules; and also to bring in new rules to ensure that come World Cup 2011, or even any other tournament before that, no one tries to shove a golf ball in one pad to for whatever better effect it gives in batting and running, or stuff a ping-pong ball somewhere else on one's person as batting enhancer, just as Gilchrist did with the squash ball in his glove.

Of course if the rules are rewritten to catch up with and squash such enhancement tricks, one may also have to consider what one can do about all those long distance ritual blessings showered on cricketers facing a world cup performance, as we saw being done from here on the eve of and the day of the recent Barbados Final.

All those long distance enhancement props for the Sri Lankan team, which invoked the powers of many a deity to help them, did not calculate for what the rain gods would do in Barbados, or allow for whatever the gremlins who were influencing the thinking of the field umpires and match referee were up to.

The efforts to squash Adam Gilchrist's current glory may lead to questions being asked about the various charms and talismans, medals, holy or blessed threads, scapulars and other blessed items that players wear on the field, to tap on to the powers of the divine, as they get about the very mundane work of playing a game of cricket.

Glory

The game would be all the merrier if at least there is a rule that one must bare such hidden spiritual supports at least one hour before the toss, and let the TV and other media cameras see it all.

Sri Lanka has all the glory it fully deserves by being runners up in this tournament in which they performed so well; and Australia also deserve to keep their trophy for the next four years for producing such an overall excellent performance.

But Adam Gilchrist, despite his prowess with the bat is not anymore in that class. It's time to remind him, and any others who may be thinking of taking the squash route to success, that one cannot be allowed to use the wrong ball as a performance enhancer in tournament play.

The least one can expect to be done is to banish this Adam from the new Cricketer's Eden he is living in today.

He will not be the first Adam to be so banished for giving in to temptation. He will possibly not be the last, too. But will the ICC decide to play God in this round? Well, your guess could be as good as mine.

The next time you hear the crack of bat on ball and the ball rocketing off to the boundary, you may have to shout "Squash" before you shout Four or Six. Won't that be a really big hit?

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