Winning At All Costs?
With the final ODI between England and New Zealand just a few hours away my mind is still on the controversary from the 4th ODI. Just to refresh everybody's memory, with the game hanging in the balance and New Zealand in the midst of a fight back 8th wicket partnership the spirit of the game came into question.
England's fast bowler Ryan Sidebottom collided with New Zealand's batsman Grant Elliot and knocked him to the ground. With Elliot flattened, Bell picked up the ball and ran Elliot out. After some moments of confusion and indecision England's captain Collingwood was asked by the umpires if he would like to uphold his appeal; Collingwood made the decision to still appeal for the runout thus tilting the match to his side's favor. The New Zealand dressing room erupted understandably so as this seemed completely against the spirit of the game. Was it? Had Collingwood crossed the fairplay and decency limits of the game?
My initial reaction and thought, more than likely purely emotional, was that Collingwood and England had violated the spirit of the game and crossed cricket's line of decency. With the batsman being flattened by a collision with your bowler it just seemed wrong not to call the batsman back. It just would have been the right thing to do to call Elliot back.
But then one has to contemplate on the fact that there have been many runouts resulting from an incidental collision between the bowler and the batsman. Sidebottom was going for the ball and did not knock Elliot down on purpose. So were Collingwood and England okay to appeal and get Elliot to take the angry walk back to the dressing room?
I am a huge fan of good sportsman spirit and because of that I think the right thing to do was to call Elliot back; actually the best thing to do would have been not to appeal in the first place. Actually, why is nobody talking about Bell throwing the ball to get the runout - if he did not throw the ball to run Elliot out then there would be no controversary!
In the end it was poetic justice with New Zealand winning on the last ball. Everybody made the right statements after the match - Collingwood saying he should have called Elliot back and Vettori saying that his team overreacted. I cannot help but feel that New Zealand's victory helped save the spirit of game and preserve the sport from being tarnished.
England's fast bowler Ryan Sidebottom collided with New Zealand's batsman Grant Elliot and knocked him to the ground. With Elliot flattened, Bell picked up the ball and ran Elliot out. After some moments of confusion and indecision England's captain Collingwood was asked by the umpires if he would like to uphold his appeal; Collingwood made the decision to still appeal for the runout thus tilting the match to his side's favor. The New Zealand dressing room erupted understandably so as this seemed completely against the spirit of the game. Was it? Had Collingwood crossed the fairplay and decency limits of the game?
My initial reaction and thought, more than likely purely emotional, was that Collingwood and England had violated the spirit of the game and crossed cricket's line of decency. With the batsman being flattened by a collision with your bowler it just seemed wrong not to call the batsman back. It just would have been the right thing to do to call Elliot back.
But then one has to contemplate on the fact that there have been many runouts resulting from an incidental collision between the bowler and the batsman. Sidebottom was going for the ball and did not knock Elliot down on purpose. So were Collingwood and England okay to appeal and get Elliot to take the angry walk back to the dressing room?
I am a huge fan of good sportsman spirit and because of that I think the right thing to do was to call Elliot back; actually the best thing to do would have been not to appeal in the first place. Actually, why is nobody talking about Bell throwing the ball to get the runout - if he did not throw the ball to run Elliot out then there would be no controversary!
In the end it was poetic justice with New Zealand winning on the last ball. Everybody made the right statements after the match - Collingwood saying he should have called Elliot back and Vettori saying that his team overreacted. I cannot help but feel that New Zealand's victory helped save the spirit of game and preserve the sport from being tarnished.
Labels: Bell, Collingwood, Daniel Vettori, Elliot, England Cricket, England vs New Zealand 2008, nazhar, New Zealand cricket, Sidebottom
