it seems now that shahid afridi did some service to cricket when he bite the ball... though his method was audacious at best but it has certainly opened the pandora box of debates for pros and cons...
fellow blogger and renowned cricket writer samir chopra presents the well considered case for legalising ball tampering... though like him i too do not agree with the morality issue... but legalising ball tampering does has its down side too...
there can be no clear cut measures on how much is too much... and even on that there will be different interpretations by different individuals that will only lead to more chaos with teams feeling hard done by the judgments... against clear cut measures as of now... if you are caught, you are punished which has been accepted by all though certain stuart broad will be an exception but still...
you do not have to go too far but to see the udrs system's fate... no team is happy with it and wherever it has been implemented has created more resentment with the questionable interpretations and judgments from talents like harpers...
the eradication of obvious decisions for which it was conceived can easily be carried out by third umpires... like in the case of raina in one day international recently when third umpire helped in over turning the decision given by simon taufel without the referral system in place... but you bet bureaucrats to come up with more complicated system than actually needed to make their presence felt...
the most compelling arguments given by those who are favoring ball tampering are that since the pitches are becoming roads... the batsmen using mongoose bats without worrying much about lateral movements... boundaries getting shortened where even miss hits clears the rope by good distance... game is decisively getting one dimensional... in favor of batsman... so bowlers need some assistance too to make it even...
but by this account can we legalise shop lifting in a recession time when finding jobs becomes more difficult... can we use unemployment as valid justification for it...?
ok... the example may not be that good but you get the drift...
rather than legalising ball tampering and inviting implementation and procedural headaches associated with it... it is far easier to arm bowlers with some allowances like lifting one bouncer per over rule... doing away with front foot no ball... bit liberal lbw parameters but more importantly giving them pitches which bring some smile back on their faces where they relish the challenge of bowling for five days...
as aakash chopra's latest article suggests... ball tampering is an art... and how a certain player took the bet to do it while talking to an umpire... i sincerely believe that legalising it will only kill this art...
those who can fool on field umpires and more importantly dissecting eyes of dozens of on field cameras placed strategically all over the ground... i have only one thing to say to them...
take a bow guys!!
a case against legalising ball tampering...
shared by straight point on Saturday, February 13, 2010
help team india to get reverse swing going...
shared by straight point on Wednesday, February 10, 2010
i was going through routine after match press conference where i found dhoni to be refreshingly candid about india's performance, steyn bowling and what he thinks of sehwag's shot after he completed the century (tho i would have loved had someone shown guts to ask the same question about sachin too but anyhow...) but one thing which caught my attention was this...
When that happens with four bowlers and two fast bowlers they have something to play with. But it never happened for us, it became really tough for the fast bowlers to either contain them or get them out. Hopefully in Kolkata we'll get the reverse swing going. Whatever legal ways are there we tried to get the reverse swing going but it didn't happen for us.
as we all know ball tampering is the flavor of the season thanks to afridi... so i thought why not devote some time to devise (legal) ways of ball tampering...?
here are some i could think of...
- wear really scuffed and pointed abdominal guard under your pants...
- close-in fielders... do the same but with inner pads...
- wicket keeper can use really rough leather on the portion where they pouch the ball...
- instead of throwing at wickets... target helmet, pads or bat of batsman instead...
- throw the ball on pitch as hard as you can when the appeal is turned down...
come on guys... give me more...
why only shahid afridi...?
shared by straight point on Monday, February 01, 2010
sorry for being late on the issue...
those who are wondering that even after playing so many years at international level... knowing that eyes of 26 cameras are following and dissecting your every move on cricket field... still shahid afridi had the audacity to do what he did... ?
they are missing this simple point... idiocy knows no reasoning...
but one more thing which seems to have escaped many minds and certainly icc's recruited match referee... why only shahid afridi was punished for ball tampering...?
as far as the video of the incident goes... it's clearly visible that first asif and later rana knew exactly what was going on and still there was nothing to suggest that they even tried to stop afridi from doing what he did... in fact rana was even seen smiling wickedly when he saw afridi biting the ball... which means both asif and rana were willing and consenting party to the crime... and they deserved to be punished like afridi... if not equally...
to me... icc missed the opportunity to not only stamp its authority but sending clear message in no uncertain terms that there will be zero tolerance towards such offenses and they will come down heavily not only on the player who is directly involved but even on those who are willingly party...
Television replays clearly caught the Pakistani fast bowler playing with the ball. While the commentators dismissed the incident when it happened, Match Referee John Reid took it very seriously and, after a long meeting, he passed out the sentence. Also fined 30 per cent of his fees was Azhar Mahmmod, who abetted the act. Pakistani skipper Moin Khan was "severely reprimanded" for allowing it to happen.
so what i was suggesting has a precedent and wonder why this could not have been implemented in this case...
