As any fan will tell you, we not just love,
but understand the sport and our teams like no one else. And that’s also why
they keep bankrolling the big fat salaries of the players, the profits of the
clubs and the boondoggle of officials. The recently concluded test match
raised, in my mind, three instances where the thought process seems to be – it is
OK for us to handle it, but it is too hot for fans.
Common, now, please don’t treat us with kid
gloves.
The first one, inevitably, is about the DRS
and taking the dugouts inputs in it. The rules are clear – the decision to ask
for a decision review stays with the players on the field. Within a few seconds
of the umpires’ decision, the batting team can dispute an out decision or the
bowling team can dispute a not-out decision, without consulting with anyone
outside the playing field. The controversy of Smith’s ‘brain-fade’ and Kohli’s
allegations have played out ad nauseam
on TV and cyberspace, so I will spare you that.
What irked me was the BCCI/CA decision to
suddenly let bygones be bygones, spirit of the game is larger, we don’t want to
mar a great series with this, yada yada, after, very clearly, one of the two
captains lied in their post-match press conference.
Steven Smith said he had a ‘brain fade’
when he checked with the pavilion to see if he should go for DRS when given
out, and in effect apologized for that. Virat Kohli said clearly that he didn’t
buy that line for a second, saying he observed that happening a couple of times
when he was batting and informed the umpires. Now which version is true? All
anyone needs to do is ask either Nigel Llong or Richard Illingworth if Kohli did
indeed mention it when batting. If he did, Smith’s the liar. If he didn’t,
Kohli is the liar.
Case opened.
Now I understand we must move on. There is
no point in dwelling upon that, drag it out messily and vitiate the atmosphere
further. But let the FANS be the judge of that. Not BCCI after a tête-à -tête with CA. Not some official.
Air the dirty linen in public, I say. Because,
trust me, we can handle it. And we understand the game.
The second one is about Steven Smith’s
other confession, that when Shaun Marsh was given LBW for padding up to a Yadav
swinger that might have hit the
stumps, he said ‘go’ – meaning go for a review, but Marsh misunderstood that as
go back to the pavilion and walked off. Common, now, who are you kidding? You
couldn’t say ‘wait mate, I want to go for DRS’? You couldn’t show that T-sign
yourself, being Captain and all? Your player ‘disregarded’ your, the Captain’s,
input, and you let it go?
What actually happened, as any self-respecting
fan will tell you, is that you were unsure. You knew you were down a review
with the one for Warner going against you, you were on the crease and could
potentially take Australia to a victory, and wanted that for a howler against
you later on, what with Ashwin and Jadeja and the close-in cordon and edges and
misses and everything. And for you to say later on that you native English
speakers of the same team differed on the meaning of the word ‘go’ – I wouldn’t
say disingenuous since you had nothing to gain by that, but not really cleaver
either.
And to me, the fan, it feels like you felt
we will lap it all up. Common, didn’t you, now?
I am an India fan for sure, but I think I
speak for the true Aussie fan here as well.
We all understand the game. And we
can handle your brain fades.
The last of my rants for this post is with
this whole package of sledging itself. It’s been around for a while, for sure. Some were real gems that has
added to the game’s allure. And anyone that’s not been in a cave for the last
20 years know the Aussies literally wrote the playbook for modern sledging. It
was so much a part of their game they practically were coached how to sledge.
But then, they come up with an associated rule – sledging should stay on the
field and never off it.
Why, I ask. Sledging is really the vile act
in this story, but wait mate, it comes with strings attached.
Who are the Aussies to come up with the
unwritten rule that it must stay on the field? Now they might be all cold and
business like and do it for the result, nothing personal, but others, certainly
the Asians, are not like that. We wear our emotions on our sleeves (sidebar: as
English expressions go, this is one of the sillier ones) and don’t separate
on-field from off-field.
We will talk about it to the press and
elsewhere. Why should we not? Why should we, or anyone for that matter, follow
that unwritten rule? If someone comes up with ‘it is so the young fans’ mind is
not corrupted by such behavior by their idols’, they ought to get their head
whacked by a pan. Fans follow what you do on-field, and today’s close up TV
leaves nothing to imagination, really. And you don’t need to be a lip reading
expert to mistake what comes from the bowler’s mouth when sending off the
batsman as a verse from the Bible.
We fans are interested not just how you bat
or bowl, but how you sledge, how you cry, how you hurt and how you handle
everything thrown at you. Because we know cricket, or any high-pressure sport
today, is more than just athletic skills.
Because we understand the game.
We are fans.
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Following up, the pre-third-test press conferences seem to indicate Virat might have 'extended' the truth a bit ... again, why is no one just asking the Umps if the couple of incidents did happen, and update all of us fans?
ReplyDeleteOK, I can hear you clearly ... 'boo, move on, there is cricket to be played'. Sure, I am moving on.
This probably will be the end of it till one of the characters involved retires and writes a tell-all book, and makes good money, again from the fans. Sigh!
Love it. Especially the 3rd point about sledging is okay but it needs to stay within the boundary rope. So silly, and its amazing how the Aussies have not only created something as vile as sledging, but also tried to put a moral spin on it. Strange that the rest of the world should somehow follow that framework. As in most issues, he who frames the problem/solution/question...wins.
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