Australia suffered its first defeat in a World Cup match since 1999 on Saturday night, losing to Pakistan by four wickets. However, the Aussies’ first World Cup loss in 34 matches wasn’t the biggest issue that arose from the game.
During the Australian innings, captain Ricky Ponting clearly edged a delivery from Mohammad Hafeez into the gloves of wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal. Both men appealed enthusiastically, almost certain they had their man. Ponting held his ground.
Umpire Marais Erasmus deemed the Australian skipper hadn’t hit the ball and gave him not out. Inevitably, the Pakistan team requested a review of the decision and video replays confirmed the number three batsman did in fact make contact with the ball.
Ponting surely can’t claim he was uncertain as to whether he hit the ball, as the replay showed he got a lot more than a faint edge. In cricketing terms, he ‘hit the cover off it’.
Perhaps the pressure on the captain to escape his form slump played a big part in his decision not to walk (give himself out). But for the sake of the game, he probably should have.
As cricket continues to develop, there seems to be progressively less etiquette amongst players. For some reason, it’s seen as unacceptable to walk as a batsman because you are disadvantaging your teammates, whereas it should be seen the other way around.
But walking, due to an increasing number of dishonest individuals, has seemingly become just another part of the game.
Everyone remembers the drama that surrounded Adam Gilchrist’s decision to walk during the semi-final of the 2003 ICC World Cup. But as the ex-wicketkeeper explained in his book “Walking the Walk”: “I felt it was time that players made a stand to take back responsibility for the game.”
However, Ponting memorably stated after the Gilchrist incident that he “won’t be encouraging players to walk.”
The problem with modern day cricket is that too much emphasis is being placed on winning. The price of this is ultimately the deterioration of the heart and soul of the game.
Somewhere along the line, it seems as though some cricketers, during their development, have stopped playing for the enjoyment or the love of the game and, therefore, in the spirit of the game.
As salaries have increased, it seems as though some players have forgotten why they started to playing.
Perhaps money plays a role in some players’ refusal to walk as individuals care more about their averages, which affects their pay, rather than the reputation of the game itself.
Proof that some players disregard the spirit of the game for money is evident in the Pakistan match-fixing saga, which resulted in Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt each receiving bans from the ICC.
Perhaps in future, Ponting should create a new name or image for himself as the Australian captain and try to reinvigorate cricket as a game for gentlemen, where an honest man won’t be scrutinized for walking.
However Ponting is not alone on this either. Dishonesty has become a regular occurrence in cricket with fielders claiming very questionable catches.
The most noteworthy example of this is Sourav Ganguly who infamously claimed a blatantly obvious bump ball, which didn’t even come off the bat during the 2003 World Cup Final. Ganguly threw the ball up in the air in an attempt to convince umpire Steve Bucknor he had caught the ball. Bucknor, however, was not at all moved by his ploy.
In years to come, perhaps a bit of honesty would make the game less reliant on video reviews and would see cricket return to being a game of class, where sportsmanship triumphs.
ravi
Guest
Agree cricketers have to be honest and i think the DRS is one step in doing it...Cricketers have no choice since they are seen by all the public in the big screen Like to bring another incident on this: Michael Slater claiming Rahul dravid catch in a test match in INDIA though he had grounded the ball - Though the replays confirmed and he was not given out, the way michael slater argued is stil in minds of many Indians
JohnB
Guest
Being noble and honest is a lot easier when the review system is in place. Before you can read too much into one instance, you have to look at how consistent someone is in their actions - do they always walk, in all situations? And on Ricky Ponting - what will the Roar do when he does go? You have to get half way down the cricket tab before finding a story he isn't at least heavily featured in.
Will
Guest
I don't like wallking, never have. I feel, that walking puts umpires in a hard position. For example, what if a player who is a known walker stands his ground when an appeal is made for, say, a bat pad catch? Will the umpire be influenced by the player standing his ground? I just feel it's easier to let the umpire make the decision. Even with the DRS, a player might as well hang around to see if the bowler has bowled a no-ball. All this talk of being noble and honest is spew inducing.
Go_the_Wannabe's
Guest
Gilly was the only test level batsmen I can remember walking REGULARLY in recent times (there's bound to be others - at least one in last Ashes series?). I believe he only did it at the tail of his career after he was well entrenched in the side (but I'll stand corrected). With the money and fame involved in cricket these days, who can blame up and comers for not walking? Their whole career may depend on a single decision.
Josh Burnell
Guest
I actually think walking is against the spirit of the game - A cricket wicket involves 1 team appealing when they believe a batsmen is out - an umpire then makes a decision - Walking diverts this and in my mind a player walking is harming the pure fabric of the game - One of the most famous and greatest cricketers in history behind only perhaps Bradman in WG Grace would never walk - much like ponting it isnt - it isnt the batsmen job to give himself out and as a former bowler I would not want a batsmen to walk
KickIt2Duck
Roar Rookie
There is no, no reason why any batsman should ever walk, other than, once given out by the umpire. I have yet to be convinced of any reason otherwise. Cricket has been a game for gentlemen for some time with umpires adjudicating. I fail to see how Ricky Ponting walking or not is putthing that in the balance.
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
Punter will walk the plank - after the WC: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-1369022/Ricky-Ponting-quit-Australia-captain-World-Cup--wants-county-job.html
Brett McKay
Guest
oh dear, another one....
Viscount Crouchback
Guest
"The problem with modern day cricket is that too much emphasis is being placed on winning. The price of this is ultimately the deterioration of the heart and soul of the game". This is absolutely right. But it's a problem that afflicts all sports, not just cricket. We notice it more in the case of cricket because the game is so associated with the traditional virtues of gentlemanly behaviour. My own theory is that the absence of serious war over the past two generations has led people increasingly to treat sport as "war by other means" whereas, hitherto, the presence of actual wars enabled people to perceive more clearly the intrinsic (and glorious) irrelevance of sport. This becomes most absurd during Ashes series (and football world cups) when otherwise sane and rational people attempt to draw deep and meaningful conclusions about the state of their nation from how well eleven young men perform on the pitch. Most comically, I recall Phillip Knightley, the Australian journalist, suggesting that Australia's Ashes loss in 2005 was somehow related to John Howard's conservatism (of which, naturally, he thoroughly disapproved). I think we would all do well to remember that the Victorians invented team sports in order to encourage youngsters to engage in healthy, gentlemanly, spirited exercise. It was ony Hitler, and later the East Germans, who came up with the preposterous notion that nations should seek to dominate other nations on the sports field as if international competitions were some sort of Darwinian struggle for survival. So as well as encouraging walking in cricket, I would go much further and seek to ban all the sinister youth academies of sport that have cropped up around the world in recent times. Sport should be a natural, organic affair in which youngsters emerge through their local clubs. We pervert the true purpose of sport when we send our youths into these bizarre hot-houses to be transformed into sporting robots.
Trev
Guest
Its always been the batsmen call if the walk or not. In this day and age of video referals if a batsmen dosent walk and stays in then the fieliding team have only themselfs to blame for a. not reviewing or b. using up all their reviews.