15 Degree Entangle

One year ban on Shabbir Ahmed was always destined to re-open debates on chucking issue. PCB has decided to appeal against the ban and this was also expected. It’s almost always the case that home board supports its own player over any ICC ruling. One gets the feeling that ICC never does a correct ruling.

I was reading this article by Osman Samiuddin on cricinfo (http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/story/230576.html) and he strongly questioned the justification of setting a 15 degrees limit. He argued why a delivery bowled at 13 degrees is alright while not the one at 18 degrees. Well it’s like asking why you are proclaimed an adult with voting rights and being able to get a driving license the day you turn 18. Why not a month or a day before that? What make you an adult suddenly at the stroke of dawn on your 18th birthday? Of course nothing miraculously happens but you got to set a limit. There is a retirement age in government offices in most nations. Naturally it could be extended or reduced by a day or a month or even a year. But again you got to agree on something.

There is no doubt in my mind that Shabbir Ahmed has not being made a target. Why was Shoaib Mallik acquitted otherwise? ICC has clearly defined laws and Shabbir failed those and got the ban. And it’s not that he wasn’t aware of these rules anyway.

I do agree though that cricket laws today favor a batsman great deal. One thought that comes to my mind about 15 degree limit is that even though it’s said to be detected by naked eye you got to go through specialized tests before it can actually be measured. If I was a young kid aspiring to become a bowler how the hell I will know if I am bowling at 14 degrees or 16 degrees? Unlike a batsman, a bowler doesn’t have a way to be sure of playing within the rules or not until you go to Australia for analysis. Isn’t funny that no other test playing country even has facilities for these tests?

The issue of illegal bowling has tormented the game of cricket for too long now and game’s administrators are obliged to find a simple rule that is actually implementable. Osman in above mentioned article rightly questioned so called unfair advantage a bowler gets with this degrees game. Consider this: Anil Kumble spins his deliveries far less than any conventional leg-spinner, leave alone Shane Warne, and he is still one of the most difficult leg spinner batsmen faced in history of cricket. What if Kumble could resorts to ‘chucking’ and brought in more spin? Would he be even more successful? We will never know. To be able to take wickets it’s not so much about to what degrees you bend your arm but more on what you are able to impart in your deliveries as a whole.

If I am a batsman I should just be concerned about the delivery itself. Bowling machines are widely used by batsman world over for practice. Do these machines bowl or chuck? What matters in the end? A delivery alone or also the way it came at you? In my opinion and also as Osman said, lets stick to the notion of dangerous bowling and put the amount of degrees to rest. Rules like under arm bowling or overstepping the crease or manually changing the condition of ball are easily implementable and should be in the law books. Laws for dangerous bowling are also in place since Bodyline. I think cricket community can live with just those?

Any law that can’t be implemented without the help of a certain laboratory in Australia just can’t be a law. In the end ‘this illegal bowling’ is still happening since umpires can only report and not call these deliveries and even forced to given a batsman out if he is. What a mess! Let a young kid practice in his backyard without a need to be wired. Let a bowler do his work as long as he is not intentionally trying to hit the batsman or using artificial means and breaking the spirit of cricket. Let this great game enjoy beauty of the art of bowling.

Hooligan's Sport?

Recently ICC warned players for misconduct and there you hear voices of discontent and anger from players, both current and former and their associations. ICC wants to stop sledging on and off the field and players want to continue that in the name of character it brings to the game. Players like Sunil Gavaskar are completely against sledging while most modern players enjoy a bit of passion display. Even a cool customer like Sachin Tendulkar let verbal volleys out on McGrath at Nairobi in 2000. This is a debate which to me will never end. Gentleman’s game or not there will always be cases when someone will utter couple of words in the heat. ICC on the other hand will continue to fine players for breaching code of conduct.

What really caught my attention is Mr Speed’s remark about Soccer. He referred soccer to be a hooligan’s sport. It’s a common knowledge that soccer matches have attracted street fights between opposite fans. Now how do you stop that if you were FIFA? One way come to my mind is to deploy more security personals in sensitive areas. But how about warning players for misconduct on pitch? Soccer already has yellow and red cards which work reasonably well.

Let’s come back to Cricket. Haven’t we seen enough times crowd throwing missiles on players or interrupting matches. As recently as in Chappell-Hadlee trophy one-dayer at Auckland crowd was not the best. Are we ready to call Cricket a hooligan’s sport? If not what will make us do that? More crowd trouble or a light banter on field between a fast bowler and an attacking batsman?

Why sports related violence takes place at all? Was Monica Sales stabbed because of her or other Tennis players’ misconduct? Do English and French football team supporters fight because their players are not gentleman enough? Kolkata test of 1999 had to be completed in an empty stadium because Shoaib Akhtar was breaching code of conduct? Answer is plain no. There is only one reason for all this and that is ultimate passion for a sport or towards a player by fans.

So should we kill this passion? For survival of any sport public interest and their passion for it is more important than anything else. If you are a vibrant sport you have to have it. Of course that also means there will be occasions when passion overflows, by players and by ‘hooligans’ but you don’t call any sport a ‘hooligan’s sport and undignified it. You don’t warn your players instead of keeping crowd in control.

I may call cricket my life but I am a sports lover in general. I offer my apologies to any soccer fans for Mr. Speed’s regrettable remarks on their beautiful game.

Ganguly's selction in test team

Ganguly’s selection in test team for Chennai test has been a huge issue in India cricket circles recently. Now after BCCI elections, three of the selection committee members have been replaced. One of the sacked selector accused Chairman Kiran More of revealing in the media that there was 3:2 division among selectors about Ganguly’s selection in test team. He charged More did wrong (if at all More did let the secret out).

Even before the team was announced there were reports in the media about three selectors being in support of Ganguly’s return. So what exactly is new? But that’s not my point to raise this subject in the first place. The real question is why it should be kept secret that who voted for whom? Don’t Indian public has right to know? And what about players? If we can have live telecast of parliament sessions, why so much secrecy around selection of national team? If I am a national selector and clear in my reasons why would I mind people to know my reasoning of preferring one player over others?

I think answers lie in same old politics and favoritism being played within richest sports body of the nation. There is no doubt in any sport’s lover mind about need of an overhaul of BCCI. The reason cricket enjoys the Numero Uno status is not so much because of administration or players but public. Cricket will survive in India as long as people remain religious to this hallowed game. We produce great cricketers because we have a very large number of young kinds who dream of becoming one. It’s almost inevitable that some diamonds find ways to be unearthed and shine. I find this to be very similar to surge in number of IT professionals India is producing in last decade or so. Parents want their kids to pursue what has best chance to earn them a decent life. When it comes to sports in India Cricket remained only realistic game to achieve those dreams. Did someone say ‘only until very recently’?

The coming up of stars in other sports should serve a final warning to BCCI. It’s time BCCI gets it act together and work for the game at all levels. Is a certain Mr Pawar listening?