Senseless rules, nonsense acts
Cricket has been famous for its competitive nature and amazing players even in countries which don’t have an international side. While some things go in its favour, there are some rules that should be scrapped to make it lively, and acceptable, because these are the rules that are making the spirit of the game, suffer the most.
Twenty over restriction in one dayers: ODI, if rain interrupts the second innings and the side batting second has faced less than 20 overs, the game is declared a no-result. Till the mid 90s, the rule was that if rain interrupts the second innings, the team with a better run rate would win the match but that has been scrapped and now more matches are being disturbed by rains than in the first 20 years of one dayers.
The most interesting rain-related incident that took place in the pre-Duckworth & Lewis method days happened during the 1992 World Cup. The match was the semi final between England and South Africa, and the South Africans needed 22 runs to win off 7 deliveries. Brian McMillan, the tall, strongly built all-rounder was facing Chris Lewis. Rain intervened and the luckless South Africans received a revised target of 22 runs off just 1 delivery!
Handling the ball: A bowler comes into deliver the ball, the batsman plays it defensively and then after the ball comes to a halt, he picks it up and hands it to the bowlers. In normal circumstances, the match will continue but if the bowler is as inexperienced as India’s Sarandeep Singh, he would appeal. Singh did so against England on their tour to India in 2001 and Michael Vaughan was declared ’handled the ball’ in a case that went against all spirits.
The ICC must rethink about the rule as there is a vast difference between handling the ball deliberately and handing the ball to the bowler. Sadly, Sarandeep Singh played just one more Test match for India while Michael Vaughan went onto becoming one of the best captains to lead England in Tests. So much for upholding the spirit of the game.
Unacceptable run outs: The run out of Pakistan’s Umar Amin during the high-scoring Asia Cup match against Bangladesh proved that cricket still has rules that need to be revised. The newcomer took a single and while switching sides on the non striker's end, he was caught surprised by the bowler Mahmudullah and the opposition skipper Shakil Al Hasan, who wanted him out by hook or by crook!
What Shakib Al Hasan, the frustrated captain of the Bangladeshi side did was not only against the spirit of the game but also against all levels of decency. He appealed as soon as the bowler, who didn’t know the batsman’s position, removed the bails. The on-field umpire got confused and asked for the third umpire, who ruled the batsman out because he had no other option, since the batsman‘s bat was in the air.
The law clearly states that the ball was dead, since it was in the hands of the bowler, yet the lack of common sense prompted the captain to appeal. Umar Amin’s dismissal brought Shahid Afridi to the crease who was so pissed off at the incident that he blasted a 53 ball century and helped Pakistan post 385 runs in 50 overs, its highest ever total in one dayers. Wonder what would have happened had Shakib not appealed?
Incidents like these have left bad taste among the two teams and International Cricket Council must take actions if they are to help the game and stop the spirit from evaporating. Fair play is the need of the hour along with common sense because until and unless the rules are straightened, dismissals like Umar Amin’s and matches with no result will continue to hamper the game.
Tags: