The Hindu Business Line : Just not cricket!

The tumultuous happenings witnessed in last week’s second cricket test between Australia and India were somewhat reminiscent of the infamous bodyline series of 1932-33.

That was the Ashes series between old rivals England and Australia Down Under. Things came to such a pass that the series came close to being called off with diplomatic relations between the two coming under severe strain. At the centre of the controv ersy was England’s fast bowler Harold Larwood, who perfected the so-called ‘leg theory’ — the fiercely fast rising ball pitched on the leg stump or thereabouts and aimed at the batsman’s body with a packed leg-side field. With no protective helmets or arm guards, the batsman had only two options — edge the ball to the leg side for a certain catch or risk breaking his skull! Both happened!

‘War, not cricket’

The man who encouraged it was England’s captain Douglas Jardine. When Aussie batsman Bert Oldfield fell to the ground after being hit smack between the eyes by a Larwood special, Australian captain Bill Woodful jumped over the boundary fence to his colleague’s aid, shouting, “this is not cricket, it’s war.” He went on, “there are two teams out here and only one of them is playing cricket.”

Was the Indian captain, the gentle Anil Kumble, harking back 75 years into the bodyline series when he said in Sydney, “only one team was playing cricket in the true spirit of the game”? Closely questioned on the horrendous umpiring errors and the behaviour of some Aussie players, the phlegmatic and diplomatic Kumble merely said, “it was for everyone to see”, meaning everything was on TV for all to watch.

Bowled over

The once ‘gentlemen’s game’ cricket has come a long way since the first ever official Test match that began on March 15, 1877 between England and Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground, where the Australians won by 45 runs.

The march of more than a century saw changes not only in the rules and forms of the game but also in the very approach of the players to the game. Fierce professionalism came only during the 1980s, a good century after the first Test was played.

Elegance and grace went out of the game as big money came to play a major role. Win at any cost became the motto, swamping sportsmanship.

Gone are the days when batsmen would ‘walk’ without waiting for the umpire’s ruling when they knew they were out. Gone are the days too when batsmen, given out by the umpire, were recalled by the rival team, acknowledging the umpire’s error.

Great Grout

Just one instance may suffice to realise what a great game it used to be once. The incident ironically involved an Australian player. It happened in one of the closely fought Tests in the 1960-61 Australia-West Indies series.

A West Indies batsman slipped and fell to the ground a few inches from the crease trying to complete a run. Wally Grout, the great Aussie wicketkeeper who had the ball, refused to remove the bails and let the batsman recover and complete the run!

Grout is no more. Alas, so is the kind of sportsmanship the great Australian displayed!

(The author, a former Deputy Editor with PTI, is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist. Feedback can be sent to rajamanirc@gmail.com)