Rule makers made red in the face

The Sri Lankan think tanks,led this time by their manager Charith Senanayake, made the rule makers red in their faces with consternation when they ‘played’ the rule in their Super Eight match in the Twenty20 World Cup at Pallekele on Monday.

There is a rule that once the Captain and the team is fined for a slow over rate, a repeat would mean that the Captain sits out the next match. The rule is too harsh and when Pakistan skipper Misbah Ul Haq suffered the fate of being benched for a match, we had reason to take the rule and the makers to task.

Like the sword of Damocles,this harsh rule will be hanging over the necks of the offending captains for one year which is unacceptable in today’s context of the game.

Harsh rule

Jayewardene was candid enough to say that it is too harsh a rule where a team has to bowl 20 overs in 80 minutes.Twenty20 cricket is a thinking game and Captains must think, consult team mates before executing.

So although not wilfully committing, time is lost; and the Captain and team members are fined 20 and 10 per cent each. This is a harsh penalty; and besides the captain is benched for the next match. It almost seems like a primitive rule.

Thanks to astute thinking by manager Senanayake, a ‘doosra’ was bowled at the rule makers!

Cannot be faulted

The Lankans cannot be faulted for this act. This was an important ICC conducted tournament and winning it was the bottom line for every country. The Lankans, being the hosts are eagerly keen to win this Cup for the first time.

And Jayewardene said that it was done with all good intentions and he said it is likely that the rules would be changed but hoped it would not be done in this tournament.

Inexplicable

But what was inexplicable was that it did not dawn on England whose Captain Stuart Broad and his team who were also found guilty of this offence, in not thinking and doing it the Lankan way.

To fine a Captain 20 per cent and each team member 10 per cent is not going to help give a bonus to anyone and it is a slur on the offenders to be treated like criminals.

The rule makers would do better by focussing on the need to change the backing up too far of the batsman at the non-striker’s end, and also to let the bowler bowl over or round the wicket without informing the umpire, because the batsman plays the reverse stroke without informing the umpire or the bowler.

Sixer-hitting Windies

The World Cup Twenty20 has seen some big hitting, especially by the West Indian batsmen, led by that ball mauler Chris Gayle. To him hitting every ball for six is second nature.

The Calypso cricketers have some batsmen such as Andre Russell, Johnson Charles, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard, Darren and Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy who can spear the ball way up into the stands or on to the roofs.

Especially entertaining was left-hander Chris Gayle. He has shown his sixer hitting prowess all over the cricketing world. His team mates are no better and when they hit sixes the ball stays hit. Some hits are super human.

Only fault

Their only fault is that they attempt to hit every ball for six instead of tempering their big hitting with caution and a bowler is happy to get clouted for a six or two and capture the wicket.

In the same class are Australia’s Shane ‘Tarzan’ Watson and England’s Luke Wright. Both hit with terrific power and excellent timing and the ball rockets over the boundary. A Sri Lankan batsman who comes close to the above named is Thisara Perera.

When KSC hit top form

On a off day of cricket in the Super Eight of the Twenty20 World Cup in Pallekele our free lance correspondent in Kandy Hafiz Marikar took Vernon Gunasekera, Kamal Jayamanne, our photographer, cheer leader Percy Abeysekera and the writer to watch Kandy Sports Club play CR and FC in a Clifford Cup knockout tournament match at Bogambara.

Firstly we were fortunate to watch Kandy regain their lost usually famous winning form and breach the CR fortress with an avalanche of goals in running up a cricket-like score of believe it or not 84 to CR’s try.

Kandy scored with monotonous regularity and it looked as though the Mahaweli dams had been breached .It was just one way traffic and it took away the game as a match and we had nothing but sympathy for the Red Shirts.

Kandy juggernaut

While watching the Kandy juggernaut running in tries, our mind went back to the CR teams of the 1960s and ‘70s when they had some excellent rugger players who brought trophy after trophy to the club beating all fancied teams.

We are told that the best of their players have moved to other clubs, thus weakening their team and they are now keeping their engagements and going through the motions.

Watching Kandy SC run riot was their benefactor Malik Samarawickrema who was a legend in the game and a former CR and Sri Lanka ruggerite.

He is chiefly instrumental in making Kandy rugby what it is today.

But what was surprising that usually vociferous and wildly cheering Kandy rugby fans were missing. Some said that the fans kept away, probably disappointed by their relinquishing of the League title after 11 successive years of winning.

After the game, while stepping out of the club, a guy asked Percy –‘are you also from the media? In his own inimitable style and witticism Percy replied. No ‘Hameedia’ much to the amusement of all around.

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