MOVING AWAY FROM THE SPIRIT OF CRICKET

The countdown for the ICC T20 World Cup has begun. The upcoming T20 World Cup 2021 will be played from October 17 to November 14 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and in Oman.

Former T20 World Cup Champions and three-time finalists -Sri Lanka- along with Bangladesh will be competing with the minnows of the cricketing fraternity -Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Papua New Guinea and Oman- for a spot in the final group stages. A big comedown for a once proud cricketing nation

As we pen these lines, to prepare for the championships, our team is touring Oman. After a few hicups the team managed to get the better of their opponents. These are perhaps part of the glorious uncertainties of cricket.

In the meantime, the game of cricket itself has undergone a huge change. Once described as a gentlemen's game, the sport was brought to the shores of South Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka by the English who mentored local players on the niceties of the game.

Cricket, we were told was a great leveller, where all players were equal; irrespective of race colour or religion and we lapped this up. Even in the classrooms at schools, teachers extoled to students the intrinsic virtues of the game; instilling in young minds the importance of fair play and the famous adage “it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game”.

A cardinal principle of the game was ‘the umpire's word is law'. None dared question it. Not any more though, especially when a western nation is playing one of its ex-colonies.

One cannot forget England captain Mike Gatting's finger wagginging display at a test match in Pakistan disputing the umpires decision. Soon a host of players were questioning umpires decisions, including our own captain during a particular test series in Australia.

Therefore, now we have a host of umpires officiating each match - the two onfield umpires whose decision is often questioned by captains and players and referred to a third umpire who uses the technology to review the onfield umpire's decision in addition to utilising ultra-edge technology to spot any variance in on-field decisions.

With the entry of big money into the game, the adage of ‘it matters not if you win or lose, but how you play the game' has gone down the drain. ‘Win at any cost', and anything to make a quick buck is the new trend in the game with sides throwing matches as well as accepting bribes from bookies.

Former South African captain Hansie Cronje and Indian captain Mohommed Azaruddin were two famous players who fell for the filthy lucre offered by bookies.

On occasion players have come to blows. Tampering with the ball to help a team gain an illegal advantage over its opposition was also fast becoming part of the game. An example of the nasty trend was the shameful incident where Aussie speedster Dennis Lillee kicked Pakistani batsman Javed Miandad in a test match played in Australia.

Lillee was let off with a mild tap on the wrist, despite having assaulted a player onfield.

Again in Australia, Aussie umpire Darrel Hair kept no-balling, spin wizard Muthiah Muralitharen, even though the bowler had been put through rigorous tests (in Australia itself) which proved his action was perfectly legal.

The upshot, we now have a match referee who joins the host of other officials to ensure these new trends do not become permanent features of the game.

Unfortunately despite so many officials overseeing the game and TV cameras minutely monitoring players' onfield behaviour, some players still try to gain unfair advantage. A sad example of this was a particular Aussie captain (still in the Aussie test line-up), who was among players suspended for their role in the shameful event.

It was and is becoming increasingly clear that cricket today can be likened to the ‘whitened sepulcher's referred to in the gospels and pervades the governing bodies of the sports in in white western countries.

West Indies great Micheal Holding emphasized this point when he recently took the English Cricket Board to task for cancelling the English tour of Pakistan.

“The ECB statement doesn't wash with me. No substance,” Holding said after receiving the Cricket Writers' Club Peter Smith Award, as reported by BBC Sport.

“Nobody wants to come forward and face up to anything because they know what they did was wrong.

“I am absolutely sure they would not have done that to India, because India is rich and powerful.”

It seems that the past values such as the ‘spirit of cricket must bow to those who control mage bucks.