Sportsmanship

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

~Napolean Bonaparte

Yesterday I was reading a newspaper, when I came across this News. Some great minds had rated the cricket players on the basis of their consistency and their contributions to their country. 5 Indians qualified for this race namely, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Virendra Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar. Believe it or not Sehwag was placed higher than Sachin Tendulkar in terms of the value of the runs contributed.

Here is the URL of the same. http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=170861&cid=26

The same day, a shameful incident took place at Dambulla, which will probably rock the rule-forming committee of ICC. Sehwag was just 1 run away from his well-deserved century, when Mr. Suraj Randiv bowled a no-ball (“deliberate”, as they say) to deny Sehwag a century. Though Sehwag managed to hit the ball long into the stands, but all in vain. The question is, should Sehwag be denied a century when that particular ball is being counted in his innings. This was an act of shame and that too coming from a player of a country like Sri Lanka which can boast of having won the “Fair Play Award” 2008 and 2007. Sri Lankan team for sure, does not deserve this award, if this is the spirit that they play with.

In a post-match talk, a livid Sehwag accused Randiv of doing it deliberately. More importantly, it wasn’t the first time that a Sri Lankan has done so, earlier the victim was Sir. Sachin Tendulkar when he was playing at an unbeaten score of 98 in Cuttack. More importantly, Sehwag celebrated his century and India achieved what they were searching for, that is a bonus point and a win.

Why do people give so importance to records? Aren’t records mere figures? Do records speak? I have been accusing Sri Lanka since the starting of this post. Can anyone recall, if India has ever done so, for a record. Let me help you.

Recall, the match against Pakistan in 1998-99 at Feroz Shah Kotla. The second last over, Javagal Srinath was bowling far wide off the stumps, so that the batsmen does not get out. The image on right is the scorecard of the same, see the extras given by Javagal Srinath. India wanted Anil Kumble to complete his record of 10 wickets in a single innings. Was India maintaining the spirit of the game? I guess your answer must be, a big NO. So fighting either for one’s own record or not letting other make a record is equally competitive in my view. If you gave away records, just like that, a hat-trick would have been a cakewalk. The pressure from fielders, and the best ball from the bowler can only fetch him a hat-trick, it’s not easy as it seems.

And if we talk of that no-ball to be deliberate, I am sorry, I am not with you. Sehwag said that Randiv had not bowled a single no-ball in the whole test series, then why now? If a class player like Sachin can get hit-wicket out at the end of his 17^th playing year, why can’t a newcomer like Randiv bowl a no-ball after a gap of a series. Let’s manipulate the situation a bit, we know Dhoni got to play the latter 3 balls of the second last over. Suppose if he would have scored even a single run in those 3 balls. Sehwag would have come to play the next over and remember that ball which went for a 4, passing by Sangakkara’s gloves. The match would have been over at that moment. There would have been no discussion either on Randiv, Sangakkara or Sehwag.

All that happened might be deliberate, but you cannot deny a coincidence as well. If running on the pitch in the line of sight of the wicket, to stop fielder’s throw from hitting the stumps is intelligent running, then throwing a no-ball at such a moment is what I call, “Intelligent bowling”.