World Cricket II

[P_R]

Flau, Karthigeyar Date-vai introduce paNNadhukkAgavE neenga vAzhga

On Mankading http://cricketingview.blogspot.in/20...mankading.html

There is a marked preference among the people who are interested in cricket on my twitter time line for clearly stated laws. There is an allergy towards any view which examines the account a player gives of himself.

All modes of dismissal are not created equal in cricket. It is a simple game, but nevertheless a very human game. The mechanical clarity of unambiguous rules is only a part of game, not all of it.

If you think that there is the written law, and thats all there is to it - that there is no right, no wrong, and no account of oneself to be given by a sportsman beyond the strict letter of the law, then you and I watch a different game. The game you watch is a boring, humorless one in which everyone must behave the same way - in which the optimal action for each player is measurable and any player who does not perform to this standard is a sub-standard fool.

Cricket is far richer than that. It is a game which requires judgment to be exercised by its players and its adjudicators - judgments not merely about what is to ones maximal advantage, but judgments about what is right by one's opponents and by the game.

It is healthy for there to be discomfort with decisions made on the field. Regrets and reflection are signs of maturity and decency.

Mankading happens rarely and never without comment. That is how it should be.