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There is a school of thought which holds that a batsman should never rub his arm when an umpire is weighing up whether or not to call him out, caught behind off the glove – not even if the ball did indeed hit his arm.
The theory goes that the umpire won’t know whether you’re being honest or not, so better not to put him in an invidious position by over-egging the reaction.
Some cricketers observe the theory, others don’t. And, in truth, you can’t blame a chap for helping along the umpire in his decision-making when he knows he hasn’t gloved it.
But it is an altogether different situation when a batsman knowingly, deliberately and quite dishonestly rubs his arm in dramatic fashion when he knows full well that the ball did in fact hit his glove.
This is what Michael Clarke did during the Headingley Test, and it is one of the worst examples of dishonesty that I have ever seen on a cricket field.
One expects players not to walk nowadays. The game is prolifically dishonest.
But much of this dishonesty is impersonal – players don’t seek actively to hoodwink the umpire. They merely refuse to help him along in his decision-making.
Michael Clarke’s behaviour was of a different order.
His was the action of the confidence trickster, the man who preys on the credulous and the naive, and bends their response to his will.
He asked Asad Rauf to trust him when he rubbed that forearm – and then he pocketed the trust like an urchin in the East End pockets a City gent’s wallet. It was a low, base action. He made Rauf look a fool.
The question for Cricket Australia – an organisation which has long taken the brave course of seeking to uphold the Spirit of Cricket even when other, more boorish elements have criticised it for doing so – is whether a man of such dubious moral fibre is the right sort of chap to captain the team when Ricky Ponting retires.
I would suggest not.
The Australians have taken many brickbats for their behaviour over the years but they are not, generally, a dishonest team. It would be a profound shame if that were to change.
And if the umpires of the world conspire – quite by accident, of course – to hand Mr Clarke a series of horror decisions over the next year or two, then we shall merely have to shake our heads and smile and mutter: ‘ah, it couldn’t happen to a nicer chap’.
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