Cricket is a gentleman's game or so we have been hearing ever since we started watching the game, which of course is pretty much since we were born. Now, I got into cricket pretty late when I was about 13 or maybe 14 since I grew up in a country obsessed with football (soccer to the folks who don't play it). However, with my country of origin it was just a matter of when not if, till I started to follow it religiously and ever since then the thing that comes up is the comment on how gentlemanly the game is. In the last decade give a few more years, the whole playing in the spirit of the game has made a lot of noise with a few teams trying push each other in a corner and win playing on the mind game than by actually playing the actual game. There has been a greater scrutiny of the umpiring and as the game has gone on to be more corporate than just be a sport the stress levels amongst the players and the officials have hit the roof.
Little would Douglas Jardine have known at the time that bowling the bodyline would have the spirit of the game linger on for the rest of the playing history as now everything that can't be controlled by the umpires goes back to the players and how much friendly spirit they show whilst playing.
Having said all that, do players really abide by the whole statement of the game being one of the gentlemen or the whole playing in the spirit of the game? Just a look at the present Test match going on between India and England has given us an indication of the extremities of the way things are played. Michael Vaughan, ex-captain of the English team recently tweeted that VVS Laxman might have applied vaseline to the bat to avoid being detected by the hotspot on the nick that may have been. The fact that the bowler at that time checked the bat (again I suspect the gentlemanly conduct there) and confirmed there was no substance - vaseline, water or otherwise on the bat. The tweet brought a bit of condemnation from the Indian camp with the former captains wondering loudly if Vaughan really knew what he was talking about, only for Vaughan to retort with "where has the humour gone?" response. Now Mr. Vaughan, I might not have played any professional cricket but to accuse a person of cheating is no joke, in any sport or profession for that matter, unless you have some concrete evidence and what you have based it on was as slippery as that alleged vaseline which surprise surprise according to an English camper was mysteriously missing.
Next came an incident where Ian Bell in a world of his own started running amok the field to get to tea before the umpires had called for it and was run out, and from the rule books, it seems was really out. All of a sudden there was a huge discussion about how the dismissal would be in the spirit of the game and if the Indian fielders should have appealed. As, tea got over and the fielders came on the field, we suddenly saw Ian Bell walk out with his bat and it was obvious the appeal was reversed and the Indian camp thought better than to react a la Vaughan and probably allow the game not to be thrown into another controversy. The question that shall probably linger on, is that would England in a similar situation have done the same thing, and even Bell could not give a proper answer to that. Dhoni might have given away the top spot in the Test rankings but he certainly has left cricket a question to ponder whenever, if ever, a situation like this arises again. I would not be surprised to see at least one comment which would go like this "I wonder what Dhoni would have done in this situation". So, after the vaseline-gate there still is hope that Cricket might still have a few gentlemen left in the game and that the spirit of the game might still be going strong.
P.S: A few lines I wrote to share with my friends on facebook about the whole cricket saga from the last two days summed up.
Nasser Hussain : I can't believe the BCCI would have objections to the use of UDRS with Hawk Eye. That is just beyond reproach
Ravi Shastri : I think you are going beyond the boundaries of commenting Nasser.
Ian Bell : I don't care about the UDRS and the umpires any more, I want Dhoni to take decisions on every thing cricket going forward.
Strauss and Flower : Amen!
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