‘It was a dreadful experience’ admits Graeme Swann
Graeme Swann the England spinner admitted that he and several team mates had extreme reservations about going into the fourth ODI against Pakistan at Lords. The raw emotions between the two sides were palpable on the field, and both the teams developed strained
relations following the allegations of the chairman of PCB Mr http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128.
Butt, claimed that the bookmakers had hinted at the possibility that some England players had taken ‘enormous’ amounts of money to throw away the third ODI against Pakistan at the Oval. Butt’s allegations came at a time when the ICC had started to investigate
into the possibility of the Oval match being fixed by certain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 players. The bookies apparently had information on the scoring patterns of the Pakistan innings. This series against England has proven to be one of the hardest for both the sides. When
Pakistan seemed to have been making a comeback in the test series, the fourth test at Lords was overshadowed by allegations of spot fixing by Pakistan players.
The accusations had hit the players so hard, that their performance in the second innings of the match spoke volumes about the morale and focus of the players that had taken a very serious bashing. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756 Yard immediately started an investigation following
the spot fixing claims by the English tabloid, and mainly the investigation was based on video footage which provided only circumstantial evidence. However, that does not seem to be the gist of all that went on off the field, with more allegations, accusations
and mud slinging aimed at the Pakistan side. Following the accusations Pakistan began the twenty20’s and had a very shaky start losing both the twenty20’s and the first two ODI’s despite the fact that they were closely contested matches.
However, Pakistan showed great resilience and jumped right back into the tournament by winning the next two games consecutively. However, following the Oval win, an English tabloid published more accusations against Pakistan that resulted in the ICC ordering
an investigation into the incident. However, that did not sum up the extremely controversial tournament and before the start of the 4th ODI at Lords Pakistan’s 12th man Wahab Riaz found himself in a scuffle with England’s Jonathan Trott
who reportedly grabbed him by the neck. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Graham-c60529 Gooch England’s batting coach eventually had to intervene to avert any possible damage. The two teams and their morale was seriously affected and admittedly both had considered the option of dropping out of the
series.
However, eventually ECB and the Pakistan team made the wise decision to go ahead and play the matches, since the crowds and the general public had not been informed of a cancellation and had travelled a long way to see the match. The second point under consideration
was that it would set a bad precedent in the future and would seriously affect cricket badly.
Both the teams are heaving a sigh of relief at the end of the tournament, and the last ODI was followed by reports of alleged ball tampering by Pakistan bowler Shoaib Akhtar.
"I couldn't wait for those games to end and get the h**l out of there. It was a dreadful experience and one I never want to experience again. In fact, I didn't want to play at all in the one-dayer on Monday. I won't lie about that - I was dead against playing.
And I wasn't alone, plenty of other players had strong reservations,” an exasperated Graeme Swann commented.
Graeme Swann was brilliant with his bowling in the last ODI and helped his side seal a series win against Pakistan. His performance also resulted in him, climbing up the ICC ODI rankings and he is now ranked at number 3.
"But Straussy, who has been brilliant throughout this episode, persuaded us the best thing we could do was get on with it as a team and make sure we won the series. He was proved to be right." Graeme Swann noted pondering back on all the action reflectively.
Tags: