A humiliating incident happened during the last cricket match between India and Sri Lanka played in Dambulla last Monday (16.08.2010). It happened just before the end of the match when India were one run away from the victory and in-form batsman Virendra Sehwag was on 99 not out. Sri Lankan off spinner Suraj Randiv delivered a no-ball deliberately to give the one run required to seal the Indian victory, by denying Sehwag’s century. Although Shewag sent the ball over the boundary rope for a six for that delivery, the runs were not counted according to the game rules and he remained at 99 not out at the end of play. The act by Randiv is a clear violation of the spirit of the game and never expected from a member of a team like Sri Lanka which won the 'ICC Spirit of the Game' award for two consecutive years.
After the incident, Randiv was suspended by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) for one match and punished by deducting his match fee. Tillakaratne Dilshan who was reported to have encouraged Randiv to bowl the no-ball was also punished. Captain Kumar Sangakkara has regretted the incident by pretending he was totally unaware of the incident and denied playing any role in it.
Unfortunately (or fortunately!), I couldn’t watch the live telecast of the last few overs of the match but I saw the incident via youtube. I observed that Sangaakkara was aware of what was going to happen just before delivering the last ball. He was shouting at the bowler but didn’t taket any action to stop it. The dialogue is clearly heard through the batsman’s end microphone. This shows he was not taking it in serious and didn’t oversee the gravity of the offence.
Interestingly, just before the last delivery, TEN Sports commentator Roshan Abeysinghe was talking about what would happen to Sehwag’s century if Randiv balled a no-ball. It seems Roshan - a long-term official of SLC and one of the three Sri Lankans working with the international team of commentators covering the series - also predicted the player’s intention correctly. Although it was correct, I rank this as a sloppy type of commentary and I don't think any of the renowned commentators should make such a negative comment on that kind of occasion. Simply it was not an expert’s comment! As a whole, does this incident indicate a sign of a new trend in Sri Lanka Cricket?
An intersting blog. I thought that if you bowled a no-ball, it didn't count and the bowler would have to bowl again? Or am I out of date?
ReplyDeleteNo ma'am you are correct. In this case the batting team had just one run to win. So when you ball a no ball in such a situation the match is over in that instant. So the runs scored of that no ball is not counted. Accordingly, the particular batsman mentioned here is denied of his century since the runs he scored of this no ball is not counted.
ReplyDeleteUsually, if a bowler bowls a no-ball, it concedes a run to the opposition team (adds to the batting side's total) plus the runs scored by the batsman. Bowler has to deliver an extra ball as well.
ReplyDeleteIn this incident, before the last ball, India wanting one run for the victory and the deliberate no-ball provided it. And the game was end there. The runs scored by the batsman was not counted and therefore he was remaining one run short of the century.
You are correct Buddika,even though I couldn't hear the discussion, this is really pathetic situation and it seems like an intentional because as a spinner, normally there can't be a big margin of error between your foot and the crease.
ReplyDeleteI have heard instances in test matches that fielders purposely allow batsmen to cross between wickets even thought they had the chance of run out the batsman because he is at 99 and one run behind the century. This is what we call as the spirit of the "Gentlemen's Game". However, every thing has commercialized and media is all around and what ever you do you can hear some criticism. So the players are in tremendous pressure but at national level they must handle this pressure and keep their heads up.
I don't expect this from Sri Lankan Cricketers because we have faced lots of difficult situations than this and sometimes we won, sometimes we lost but we never loose our spirit as Sri Lankan Cricketers.
Correct Gihan. This incident is not what we expect from our boys. Sri Lankans have the right passion and the spirit of the game to a hight degree. So punishing the people involved in this situation was a welcome news in my ears. But how this point is exaggerated in media is very wrong. The Indian newspapers have critized Sri Lanka Cricket basically. It is evident that the Indians have many more incidents which were bigger than this that they got away with. Even the Aussies have some blood in their hands. Now that people involved are pinished the SLC board should make sure that nothing like this happen again.
ReplyDelete