To hell with the spirit, playing to the rules is what matters

The International Cricket Council, the guardians of the game and its Cricket Committee have been caught on a sticky wicket. This is because of the incident that took place in County Championship game between Somerset and Surrey in Taunton. India’s Murali Karthik playing for Surrey and bowling to Somerset batsman Alex Barrow, had suddenly stopped in his run-up and removed the bails with the batsman out of his crease.

It is said that it is not cricket to run a batsman out in this way which is known in cricket as ‘Mankading’ made famous by another former Indian all rounder the great Vinoo Mankad. Somerset fans stung to the quick by this manner of dismissal, became hostile to Karthik and one ignorant supporter had shouted at Karthik calling him a disgrace to cricket.

Frustrated supporter

But the disgrace to cricket was none other than that frustrated Somerset supporter. He probably was ignorant of the rule that a batsman can be run out after being warned. And Karthik had warned Barrow two balls earlier.

Now the bowler was playing according to the rules, while the batsman was not. In fact the batsman was cheating. When he is expected to run 22 yards, by leaving the non-striker’s crease earlier before the bowler delivered, he was stealing a run by not running the distance.

The home team spectators thought that the spirit of the game had been brought to disrepute. Karthik’s captain Gareth Batty refused to withdraw the bowler’s appeal for dismissal and umpire Peter Hartley did right thing in ruling the batsman out because Karthik was playing to the rules and the batsman was not. Now it is best to understand that you can’t play the game to the rules and to the spirit. Traditionalists will swear by the spirit. But with the game becoming highly commercialized, the spirit has been thrown out of the window, with winning at whatever cost being the bottom line. The spirit has now become an evil spirit to put it crudely.

Trevor’s under arm ball

To turn back the pages of time, it must be recalled how former Australian Captain Greg Chappell asked his brother Trevor to bowl an underarm delivery to a New Zealand batsman so as to deprive him of hitting the winning runs.

That action by the Chappels nearly ended cricketing ties between the two countries with the incident nearly provoking the two countries into war.

But what the Chappels were doing was playing to the rules. And playing to the rules is what matters and to hell with the spirit. The ICC did away with the underarm delivery. It is time that the ICC and its Cricket Committee remove their night visions and get the game going according to the rules or the spirit. With money the end thing, you can’t play it both ways, like wanting to have the cake and eating it.

Mankad the great

Incidentally it was one of India’s greatest cricketers who made the incident of running out a batsman who was backing up too far and that is why when a batsmen is run out in similar fashion it is called ‘Mankading’.

Mankad’s son Ashok was also promising and eyecatching cricketer. But he failed to emulate the deeds of his brilliant father. A similar incident took place in a ‘Sara’ Trophy encounter between BRC and Saracens played at Havelock Park a long time back. Sunil Perera the BRC batsman played a ball and instead of informing the umpire which he was bound to do, took a stroll down the wicket.

The fielder was H.H.M.Aly and I was leading the Saracens. Alylooked at me. I signalled to him to throw down the wicket, which Aly did and the umpire had no alternative but to rule the batsman out because it was done according to the rules. The BRC supporters kept booing, while the Saracens supporters were cheering. And Sunil Perera being a former Trinity captain should have known better. Some of my team mates Shanti Pieris, Ralston Burke, Percy Perera, Nihal Seneviratne, Aubrey Kuruppu and T.K. Palitha still remember that incident.

De Silva’s baby delivered

That Sri Lanka Cricket was able to safely deliver the baby – the Sri Lanka Premier League – which was conceived by D. Somachandra de Silva’s Interim Committee must be appreciated and applauded. While the League cannot be spoken or compared with the Indian Premier League, which will never be equalled or surpassed, yet it was admirable because the local league was completed without a hitch. In Pallekele one team refused to take the field over a payment

delay. Now that is not what was expected from a high profile team with some international players. It only went to prove that the game or the tournament did not matter to them, but what mattered was the money. It was a shame and certainly not an example to the other players and teams. Holding the organizers to ransom was their ugly way of playing the game.

More interesting

The League would have been a bit more interesting and the spice would have been added had the ball bashing, sixer-hitting ‘man mountain ‘from the West Indies Chrys Gayle being available. From the time it was announced that Gayle was unavailable having unfortunately suffered a hamstring injury, the lights went out of the tournament. In this style of cricket, bashers like Gayle are a must for the tournament to attract a full house. What Gayle did in the Indian Premier League hitting unimaginable sixes that soared onto the top tiers of the big grounds in India was amazing and every where he played and like Mary and the Little Lamb the crowd was sure to go. Then also this league failed to attract the cricketers from the Bollywood of cricket India. Their stars whose names are too numerous to mention would have wished to play.

Not money big

But these Indians are so rich that playing in a League that was not money big, would not have been to their liking. In addition they were preparing to play New Zealand in a Test and one-day series and were unavailable.

That the Pakistani draw-cards were available added interest to the tournament. But playing for Mahela Jayawardene’s Wayamba, they helped into the semis and that they had to skip the crucial semi-final game was a blow as Wayamba lost a crucial semi-final to Nagenahira Nagas.

And in return that Nagenahira had to lose to Uva Next in a rain shortened final was also cruel.

When 50 or Twenty20 games is over reduced due to rain, it takes away the very purpose and the competitiveness of the games and it becomes a no show. That’s exactly what happened in the final when Nagenahira batted 15 of the Twenty overs, while Uva raced to victory when the dreaded Duckworth/ Lewis method was brought into play.

Thanks to sponsors

And if not for sponsors Mahindra and Mahindra not stepping in and making a show of it, the SLPL would have been like un-cooled beer – pale. Also if the tournament is held next year, the organizers would do well to have a better rapport with the media.

Players were leaving their franchise and new players were flown in and the media was kept in the dark as to who, from where or what their abilities are. Some of them were unknown quantities.

Every endeavour has its good and bad things. It is hoped that Sri Lanka Cricket will learn from this their first fling in this style of tournament and do a better job next time round. And it is also time that some of the all powerful office bearers in SLC who imagine that they are sporting halos remember after all that they are also human and develop a better rapport.

Two men who deserve bouquets for doing a job palatable to all under trying circumstances were Media Manager Rajith Fernando and his assistant Chanaka Silva who handled the media with great aplomb. Pity that they are not involved in the ICC Twenty20 due to begin soon.

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