- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Stuart Broad’s non-walk on day three of the first Ashes Test has been the topic on everybody’s lips since it occurred.
It’s indicative of the place the great sport of cricket finds itself in as a part of the twenty-first century sporting marketplace, a sport caught between the past and the future.
The governance by ‘the spirit of the game’ is a very unique aspect of cricket in the modern sporting realm.
In a world full of big bucks, high stakes and harsh scrutiny, cricket has always tried to maintain its status as a game of gentlemen.
The integrity of the game should always be upheld; poor sportsmanship, well that’s just not cricket.
Sport has become a huge business.
Stuart Broad is getting huge money and is under huge pressure to perform for his side.
The umpire didn’t give him out, but all able-eyed spectators knew he was – should he walk to protect the integrity of the game or should he stay to collect the victory for his team and country? It is a difficult proposition.
Let’s change the context.
The series is two-all, in the fifth day of the final Test with one side nine wickets down and three runs behind in the final Test– would we all still feel that he should walk? Or would we want our man to hold his ground, collect the final runs and collect the urn?
As cricket walks the tricky tightrope of the T20 format whilst still trying to uphold Test tradition, I believe a lot more players are going to do what Stuart Broad did on the third day.
We will all grip our bowler hats tightly, curse the limited overs and cry that ‘the game just isn’t the same today’ each and every time it happens until we realise that the game is this way because of us.
Fans have invested such time, money and love into their teams and the players which don their colours that for these players to not do everything within their power to win would be to let down the lovers of the game which have created this high-pressure environment.
The umpire has not given him out and he has the weight of an entire country on his shoulders (one of which is injured, creating even more pressure).
We can curse Stuart Broad to hell and high water all we like, but he has done what every English fan deep down wants him to do – whatever he can to win.
As an Australian, I would have loved to see him to walk.
But in an era of DRS, Hot Spot and Hawk Eye ruling the roost rather than the umpires decision, and the fans creating a cut throat pressure chasm for the players, I cannot begrudge him for what he did.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.