Spirit Of The Game

Oh dear, Shane Warne’s an upset man these days. For starters, not too many, including this writer, gave the Rajasthan Royals’ team too many chances in the IPL. Rather pleasantly, slowly, but surely, all of us are getting proved wrong. To add to the same, in his match against the , too many things went against him. Except, of course, the result. It was the opposing captain, Sourav Ganguly, of the ‘I-like-to-strip-my-jersey’ or ‘I-like-to-keep-captains-waiting’ fame that bore the brunt of most of his ire. Apparently, because Ganguly had not played the sport in spirit of the game. This relates to an incident that panned out like this according to Cricinfo,

“Then came the catch, or non-catch, depending on your interpretation of the TV pictures. Smith was convinced he had taken Ganguly’s swing cleanly, and so, plainly, was Warne. But Ganguly asked for a replay – which he is not supposed to do – and Asad Rauf up in the TV box could not be 100% certain the ball had not bounced. Ganguly fell in the next over anyway, but Warne was furious.”

What added to the great man’s ire was the fact that they had signed up for the ‘Spirit of the Game’ mandate, and Ganguly cleanly forgot about it.

“”I was disappointed because in Bangalore we signed that wall about the spirit of cricket,” he said. “If an international captain like Graeme Smith caught it and said it was a clean catch and Rudi Koertzen said he caught it, easy… And anyway, the players aren’t allowed to ask for the umpire. But Sourav asked the Indian umpire to go to the TV replay. That’s not in the spirit of the game so I was very, very disappointed with Sourav.””

“Dear Warnie, we all know that international cricketers do not sign such documents before the start of their international careers, like they did here. Otherwise, one can be rest assured that you would not have sold your conscience – and the game – off with Mark Waugh for a measly sum of some dollars to a bookmaker. And had it been for that one signature, you would have definitely not had blamed it on your mum for gulping down a couple of drug masking agents, that caused the ban and subsequent end of your ODI career. Not to talk about the umpteen occasions when the umpires peed in their pants ‘hearing’ the confidence in your appeals and adjudged the batsmen out incorrectly.

Next up, Warnie, you would talk about cricketers walking for LBWs decisions, isn’t it?

What Ganguly did was peanuts, mate. He asked the umpire for a decision, that he was not sure. And if the umpire did go for divineness, in the form of the third ump, it can certainly not be plugged onto his shoulder, the blame. If the umpire was so sure about himself, he could have easily remained rooted to his decision. He did not. The matter ends there. The argument about the decision being right or wrong is a different issue altogether, personally, I thought Ganguly was out. Again, the ump chose otherwise, your bad mate. Happens in life. Happens in cricket.

In the end, Sourav Ganguly makes a pertinent point when he says, “Shane, of all, should not be talking of the spirit of the game.”