Monday, September 7, 2009

Batsmen are cheats


Something has bothered me for a long while but it bubbled to the surface on Friday, during the first ODI. I think it was Lee who was bowling and he was given a no ball. They then went to a square on replay to show that, sure enough, Lee's foot was well over the line. But in that same shot you could see that the batsman at the non strikers end was a good two feet out of his crease.

This is, imo, unacceptable. Stumpings and run outs are measured in millimeters, yet the non striker can casually walk down the bloody pitch with no retribution beyond the once in a blue moon straight drive that clips a bowlers finger and hits the stumps.

When I was a kid my first ODI at Newlands* was SA against India. In that match Peter Kirsten was stealing ground in exactly the same way. Until Kapil Dev ran through and instead of delivering the ball, he took off the bails and appealed.

There was much consternation and Kapil came under a bit of fire for being unsporting. Unsporting my balls!

I implore some brave (and lets face it, dickish) bowler to do the same thing again. If its allowed in the rule book, with referrals today the batsman will have to walk. If its not in the rules, at least it'll get the batsman to play fair for a bit, and it might get people talking about what is rapidly becoming the most contentious issue in cricket sport the world today.


* I also remember Hansie hitting a 6 to win the game, which apparently broke somebodies nose in the crowd. I was a kid so I'm not too sure how much of this post is accurate and how much was made up in my head to make the game seem a bit more exciting.

4 comments:

Sean on September 7, 2009 at 6:30 PM said...

I totally agree Darren they must make more rules that the non- striker cant leave the crease until the ball leaves the bowlers hand. and what about strikers advancing so then they have less distance to run hehe.
Darren had you ever seen this blog http://amy-cricket.blogspot.com/ sad story

Darren Buser on September 7, 2009 at 9:28 PM said...

Wow, that's really sad. I think I saw her blog once or twice, prior to setting up ComPos. Definitely wouldn't feel comfortable doing a post about a girl I didn't know and a blog I hadn't really read, but any loss of someone so young is tragic.

RIP

Homer on September 7, 2009 at 9:28 PM said...

FYI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_out

As a bowler enters his delivery stride, the non-striking batsman usually 'backs up'. This means he leaves his popping crease and walks towards the other end of the wicket so that it will take him less time for him to reach the other end if he and his batting partner choose to attempt a run.

Sometimes a batsman, whilst backing up, leaves the popping crease before the bowler has actually delivered the ball. Where this has happened, the bowler may attempt to run the non-striking batsman out. Getting a batsman out this way, though legal, is generally considered to be against the spirit of the game as the non-striker usually accidentally leaves the crease. The bowler is meant to warn the batsman to stay in his crease rather than to take his wicket. If the batsman repeats this, despite an earlier warning, a bowler may run him out without a further warning. If he fails, and the batsman gets home, the delivery is called a dead ball. When it has happened in first-class cricket, it has been controversial.

Since then the Laws of cricket have changed, so that a bowler may no longer Mankad a batsman once he has entered into his delivery stride. However, under Law 42.15 of the Laws of Cricket it remains possible for a bowler to run out a non-striker who has strayed outside his crease after he has started his run up, but before he has entered his delivery stride. [Appendix D of the 2000 Code defines delivery stride as the stride during which the delivery swing is made; it starts when the bowler's back foot lands for that stride and ends when the front foot lands in the same stride.

Cheers,

Darren Buser on September 8, 2009 at 11:38 AM said...

Very interesting, thanks. It's hard to see when batsmen are starting to steal ground as we usually only get the last moments of the bowlers stride from the "no ball cam".

Someone should try it though. It'd be a blast.

Post a Comment

 

The Commentary Position Copyright © 2009 BeepTheGeek is Designed by Gaganpreet Singh