Another good article from an Auusie:
Test cricket left in tatters
January 9 | Bill Hoffman
It’s just not cricket. Playing in the spirit of the game has been made meaningless by the second Test between Australia and India, which could have ended in a triumph for the sport.
Instead, Australia has recorded a record 16th win in succession but the game at what once was its highest level has been left in tatters.
With the best players around the world now flocking to the cash-rich Twenty20 game being driven by the Board of Cricket Control India, now was not the best time for the highest form of cricket to signal that it is about nothing other than winning.
But, and poor umpiring decisions to one side, that is exactly what has led to the mess the game is now in, with India threatening to boycott the rest of its tour of Australia.
Cricket is a game where things happen in a flash on a broad canvas and where even the most up-to-date technology can fail to give a definitive answer to the question, HOWZAT.
That is where the spirit of the game is meant to show its relevance.
It is a spirit that has survived in the most money-focussed of all sports, golf. Players knows every single aspect of the game cannot be policed by officials and consider it a matter of honour to declare what often only they know – that a ball has moved slightly, that a club has touched surface in a sand trap, or that they have marked a wrong score.
No one expects a cricketer to walk if there is any doubt in his own mind that he may not be out.
That was not the case in Andrew Symonds’ first innings, when he quite simply took advantage of an inept umpiring decision to hold his place on the field and ultimately to determine the course of the match with his 168 not out.
Having done so, his declaration in post-innings interviews that he knew he was out was both foolish and provocative. Symonds should have been chided by his skipper, who has responsibilities to the game as well as to his own and his team’s record, but was not.
And he most certainly should not have been awarded man-of-the-match, a decision that must clearly have indicated to everyone who witnessed the match that cricket as it was meant to be played had died.
Arguments that “what goes around comes around’’ are puerile. All games hinge on moments. Umpiring decisions, partnerships, individual hundreds and blistering sessions by bowlers only have context in the moments in which they occur.
A lot was put at risk by Symonds’ blatant abuse of the spirit of the game.
For the International Cricket Council to then reduce its consideration of player conduct to whether an Indian player had called Andrew Symonds a monkey after a complaint from the Australians, invited the consequences that are now reverberating around the cricket world.
“We cheated but he called Andrew names” is a fine end to a contest which could have brought so much more to the game.
To have any future in modern sport, the five-day Test must maintain its relevance.
One-day cricket and the Twenty20 game will not go away. If anything, Twenty20 has by far the greatest relevance to the vast majority of fans because it most closely mirrors their own experience, be that in the backyards of Australian suburbs or the streets of Mumbai.
Test cricket is about tradition, history and fair play.
Ultimately, the concept of fair play is its core value – what sets it apart and what bestows those who win the honour to play it with a higher worth. There is even a dollar value to that currency which players ignore to their own cost.
At its best, Test cricket is an absorbing contest, highlighted by wonderful displays with bat and bowl and in the field. But if it is just about winning, it takes too long to get a result.
Test cricket left in tatters
January 9 | Bill Hoffman
It’s just not cricket. Playing in the spirit of the game has been made meaningless by the second Test between Australia and India, which could have ended in a triumph for the sport.
Instead, Australia has recorded a record 16th win in succession but the game at what once was its highest level has been left in tatters.
With the best players around the world now flocking to the cash-rich Twenty20 game being driven by the Board of Cricket Control India, now was not the best time for the highest form of cricket to signal that it is about nothing other than winning.
But, and poor umpiring decisions to one side, that is exactly what has led to the mess the game is now in, with India threatening to boycott the rest of its tour of Australia.
Cricket is a game where things happen in a flash on a broad canvas and where even the most up-to-date technology can fail to give a definitive answer to the question, HOWZAT.
That is where the spirit of the game is meant to show its relevance.
It is a spirit that has survived in the most money-focussed of all sports, golf. Players knows every single aspect of the game cannot be policed by officials and consider it a matter of honour to declare what often only they know – that a ball has moved slightly, that a club has touched surface in a sand trap, or that they have marked a wrong score.
No one expects a cricketer to walk if there is any doubt in his own mind that he may not be out.
That was not the case in Andrew Symonds’ first innings, when he quite simply took advantage of an inept umpiring decision to hold his place on the field and ultimately to determine the course of the match with his 168 not out.
Having done so, his declaration in post-innings interviews that he knew he was out was both foolish and provocative. Symonds should have been chided by his skipper, who has responsibilities to the game as well as to his own and his team’s record, but was not.
And he most certainly should not have been awarded man-of-the-match, a decision that must clearly have indicated to everyone who witnessed the match that cricket as it was meant to be played had died.
Arguments that “what goes around comes around’’ are puerile. All games hinge on moments. Umpiring decisions, partnerships, individual hundreds and blistering sessions by bowlers only have context in the moments in which they occur.
A lot was put at risk by Symonds’ blatant abuse of the spirit of the game.
For the International Cricket Council to then reduce its consideration of player conduct to whether an Indian player had called Andrew Symonds a monkey after a complaint from the Australians, invited the consequences that are now reverberating around the cricket world.
“We cheated but he called Andrew names” is a fine end to a contest which could have brought so much more to the game.
To have any future in modern sport, the five-day Test must maintain its relevance.
One-day cricket and the Twenty20 game will not go away. If anything, Twenty20 has by far the greatest relevance to the vast majority of fans because it most closely mirrors their own experience, be that in the backyards of Australian suburbs or the streets of Mumbai.
Test cricket is about tradition, history and fair play.
Ultimately, the concept of fair play is its core value – what sets it apart and what bestows those who win the honour to play it with a higher worth. There is even a dollar value to that currency which players ignore to their own cost.
At its best, Test cricket is an absorbing contest, highlighted by wonderful displays with bat and bowl and in the field. But if it is just about winning, it takes too long to get a result.
