Line & Length
R Mohan
Game must piece together its credibility
January 19, 2008
Cricket lurched back to normality pretty quickly. The atmosphere at a WACA was decidedly friendlier even if all the banter was not cut out, but if that happened the game would be reduced to a robotics contest. The fire was back in the cricket rather than in the semantics of swear words, of whether "monkey", as a moniker, is worse than "bastard" or vice versa.
There will be two views about the pleasures of Perth after the storm of Sydney. While the game's governors would have welcomed the truce, the faultfinders will aver that the game had merely swept another major issue under the carpet only because sport must carry on like any other business to keep the cash registers ticking.
Just a week ago it appeared as if the cricket world was ready to split into black and white sections again. A couple of days into the Perth Test the beauty of cricket was in the forefront once again. The Indians who may have been magnanimous in not reducing the racism issue into a tit for tat exercise by charging the one Australian who had openly questioned the parentage of celebrated Indian players ensured that peace was restored.
The feeling does, however, persist that the Australians who have been lording it over all comers not only in the cricket but also in matters of gamesmanship have got away lightly once again. For ages they have been the major perpetrators of the questionable tactics of gamesmanship called sledging. By pinpointing the racism aspects of a confrontation between two players, they had upped the ante while dealing another blow to the credibility of the sport. While gamesmanship goes right back to Dr W.G. Grace who thought nothing of putting the bails back on because it was a windy day and people had come to see him bat, the modern Aussies may have fine tuned this into the biggest exhibition of playing to win at any cost. After all, who else would have thought of bowling underarm as the middle Chappell did while the elder Chappell once dropped his pants in the arena to make a point?
The point to ponder is the ICC has been too happy to go along with the ebb of the controversy and the flow in its aftermath rather than tackle certain issues that had to be faced squarely if the game is not see an action replay of all the worst things the Sydney Test represented, not only in Australia's relentless quest for wins but also in India's childish blackmail of abrogating the tour.
The racism aspect of it will bounce back again when the appeal process gets going once the Test series concludes. The nasty things said on both sides of the fence will be repeated ad nauseam unless ICC decides that enough is enough and finds a way to defuse the whole crisis by ruling firmly that the Spanish inquisition is over and that the Sydney Test will simply represent the line that no one will cross again.
The need to control sledging by saying that no conversation should involve the opponents may be a fresh starting point if this matter of gamesmanship is to be taken head on. Let us not for a minute forget that while Shoaib Akhtar once copped a lengthy ban for one swear word at his opponents while Andre Nel spits several a minute. Also, let us not forget that Glenn McGrath once commented on the sexual preferences of the opposing batsman and got into a finger waving slanging match when Sarwan responded by bringing his wife into the banter. McGrath was not banned even one Test for that nasty contretemps. So, maybe, the ICC has to examine its great justice dispensing system involving match referees.
Honestly, the game would do well to go on without suffering this grand need to grandstand as the fairest of all sports. Cricket may have lost its innocence in the first post-World War II Ashes Test when Don Bradman, having scored very few of his 187, refused to walk on a straightforward catch by Jack Ikin in the slips and the England captain Wally Hammond, in a noble gesture, ordered his team to carry on.
In the context of the modern world, cricket is just another entertainment industry whose wheels must keep moving. All this talk of cricket being a metaphor for fair play and the noblest things in life was eroded completely by the Sydney incidents. To pick up the pieces of a shattered credibility, the game must go on as a sporting contest. Cricket can never be like the game of golf, which is the torchbearer of an ndividual's integrity.
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
There will be two views about the pleasures of Perth after the storm of Sydney. While the game's governors would have welcomed the truce, the faultfinders will aver that the game had merely swept another major issue under the carpet only because sport must carry on like any other business to keep the cash registers ticking.
Just a week ago it appeared as if the cricket world was ready to split into black and white sections again. A couple of days into the Perth Test the beauty of cricket was in the forefront once again. The Indians who may have been magnanimous in not reducing the racism issue into a tit for tat exercise by charging the one Australian who had openly questioned the parentage of celebrated Indian players ensured that peace was restored.
The feeling does, however, persist that the Australians who have been lording it over all comers not only in the cricket but also in matters of gamesmanship have got away lightly once again. For ages they have been the major perpetrators of the questionable tactics of gamesmanship called sledging. By pinpointing the racism aspects of a confrontation between two players, they had upped the ante while dealing another blow to the credibility of the sport. While gamesmanship goes right back to Dr W.G. Grace who thought nothing of putting the bails back on because it was a windy day and people had come to see him bat, the modern Aussies may have fine tuned this into the biggest exhibition of playing to win at any cost. After all, who else would have thought of bowling underarm as the middle Chappell did while the elder Chappell once dropped his pants in the arena to make a point?
The point to ponder is the ICC has been too happy to go along with the ebb of the controversy and the flow in its aftermath rather than tackle certain issues that had to be faced squarely if the game is not see an action replay of all the worst things the Sydney Test represented, not only in Australia's relentless quest for wins but also in India's childish blackmail of abrogating the tour.
The racism aspect of it will bounce back again when the appeal process gets going once the Test series concludes. The nasty things said on both sides of the fence will be repeated ad nauseam unless ICC decides that enough is enough and finds a way to defuse the whole crisis by ruling firmly that the Spanish inquisition is over and that the Sydney Test will simply represent the line that no one will cross again.
The need to control sledging by saying that no conversation should involve the opponents may be a fresh starting point if this matter of gamesmanship is to be taken head on. Let us not for a minute forget that while Shoaib Akhtar once copped a lengthy ban for one swear word at his opponents while Andre Nel spits several a minute. Also, let us not forget that Glenn McGrath once commented on the sexual preferences of the opposing batsman and got into a finger waving slanging match when Sarwan responded by bringing his wife into the banter. McGrath was not banned even one Test for that nasty contretemps. So, maybe, the ICC has to examine its great justice dispensing system involving match referees.
Honestly, the game would do well to go on without suffering this grand need to grandstand as the fairest of all sports. Cricket may have lost its innocence in the first post-World War II Ashes Test when Don Bradman, having scored very few of his 187, refused to walk on a straightforward catch by Jack Ikin in the slips and the England captain Wally Hammond, in a noble gesture, ordered his team to carry on.
In the context of the modern world, cricket is just another entertainment industry whose wheels must keep moving. All this talk of cricket being a metaphor for fair play and the noblest things in life was eroded completely by the Sydney incidents. To pick up the pieces of a shattered credibility, the game must go on as a sporting contest. Cricket can never be like the game of golf, which is the torchbearer of an ndividual's integrity.
Republished with permission from The Asian Age
