Letter of the Day
7 July, 2001
This is such bunch of baloney. Its high time the
administrators of the game stop living in the dream
that cricket is a gentleman's game, and regulate that
players place their conscience before winning.
Was the referee seriously expecting ridley jacobs to ask
everyone to abort thier appeals and call the batsman
back? What if jacbos wasnt sure about it? What if the
next time he does it right and the umpire gives it
not-out?
On the flip side, are you expecting a batsman to walk when the umpire gives him not-out but
he knows he is out? will you penalize him for "cheating" if he doesnt walk and you find out later on that he was out? These are split-second decisons made by players in the heat of the moment under extreme pressure to win!
It's not the "cheater" inside them making them do it, it's their competitive juices!
the game was very different back in the 1960's when the match referee Lindsay played.
This sort of behaviour is not expected in any other sport. Was maradona ever suspended for the famous hand-of-god goal? Was senna ever supended for intentionally crashing into prost to gaurantee winning the F1 season? In NBA '00 play-offs, did they suspend teams when they frequently kept fouling Shaq because they knew he is bad from the free throw line?
If you want more aggression in the game, you've gotta stop pretending that this is still a game played by the the royalsfor pasttime. its a blood sport out there! fine jacobs or give him a yellow card (if there is such a thing), but dont brand him a cheater and suspend him for 3 games.
Sawan
