Vishal Sharma
Even as the cricket world cup being played in Newzealand and Australia enters the business end of the tournament, it has been marred with a controversy it could have done without. Bangladesh has cried foul over its loss to India in a recent quarterfinal tie. The entire nation is in a virtual mourning and is blaming partisan umpiring for the loss. There have been vicious and unrelenting slandering campaigns launched on the social media by the Bangladeshi fans. Bangladeshi media has expectedly propped up the cause with its vitriolic comment; and no less a person than the Bangladeshi premier has also closed ranks with the vast mass of despondent Bangladeshis and held that the dubious umpiring was behind the Bangladesh’s loss.
The protestations would have been alright had they have been limited to the technicalities only. After all there have been many occasions in the past where in the aftermath of the hard fought games those in the ranks of the runnersups have raised fingers of suspicion. But seldom has such grouse been taken beyond the boundaries that circumscribe the passion that the game so fervently generates. At the end of the day, the thought of it being a game after all has prevailed. Bangladeshis on the other hand have insinuated or so it appears that it is India’s pecuniary clout in the ICC that has got India thus far in the tournament. Former Pak bowler, Sarfraz Khan, had also levelled a similar charge after Indo-Pak round robin tie when he said that ICC was favouring India by giving it wickets in Australia which had same pace and bounce as on Indian pitches and thus helping India to win in the tournament. While Sarfaraz has always been a loose cannon and, therefore, hasn’t had many tongues wagging over what he said, it is Bangladesh that has surprised many with its reckless posturing on the issue.
In many ways, Bangladeshis today are walking a proverbial tightrope of minimal niceties that are expected of an international team and the inexorable degeneration into nation which is a bad, sulking loser. On evidence, it appears that it is not particularly mindful of what it is lurching into. And this is something that is ominous. Yet, it wouldn’t have mattered much, if the anger and blame shifting would have been confined within the Bangla borders. What’s got every right thinking person agitated is that even the ICC chief Mustafa Kamal, who hails from Bangladesh, has also held umpires responsible for the defeat of the Bangladeshi team. Never in the past has such brazen admonishment of the on field umpires been done by an ICC honcho. Though Kamal’s colleague at the ICC, Dave Richardson, former South African wicketkeeper, has rubbished the statement of Kamal, it has set a wrong precedent. Kamal should in no case have allowed his passion for Bangladeshi green to prejudice his views on the game and in the process compromise his position at ICC. While Kamal may not help, howsoever hard he tries, Bangaldesh to redeem what the gullible fans think that it may, his thoughtless utterance has made his own position in the ICC untenable.
In all of this though, the technical part of the dismissals that should have been the staple of the debate surrounding it has been simply overlooked. The two dismissals that are at the heart of the issue are: Rohit Sharma’s catch, when he was on a score of 90, on the boundary which was noballed by the umpire; and Tamim’s catch on the boundary by Shikhar Dhawan which he took but not without juggling it more than once; and in the process going over the rope once. In Rohit’s case, Bangladeshis have argued that the ball which was no balled was a perfectly legitimate delivery as it wasn’t waist high; infact, it was shade below it and, therefore, he should have been given out. While even if it were accepted for a moment that it was indeed so, it needs to be understood that not one but both the field umpires concurred with the decision. How is it possible that both the umpires were partisan and especially if one of them happens to be a Pakistani? In the second instance, the catch taken by Shikhar appeared clean because when he first made contact with the ball, his foot was not touching the rope or atleast the television footage didn’t show it did. When the next moment the force of the ball got him into a bit of tangle, he juggled with it and lost his footing and had his one foot go beyond the boundary. But before he lost balance and tipped over, he had thrown the ball up and recovered well in time to get back within the rope to catch the ball that he had so smartly thrown up; all the while keeping it on the inside of the boundary. His catch may have looked little awkward but did not appear unclean. In such fast paced moments, the naked eye can only make out what it sees. Alternatively, we rely on the slow motion action replays. Both ways, there was not much on evidence which shows that the decisions made by the field umpires were off the mark. Rest is clutter which should, as they say, be cut out.
Team India should, however, not allow this peripheral noise to slip into their ears. It appears to be a team possessed. After winning all matches quite convincingly, it has shown that it has in it to defend the world cup. Last two matches are going to be more a test of which team holds its nerves better than which has better skill sets. India’s march thus far has been of a rampaging army. It needs to focus and remember that the biggest danger it faces today is from the complacency and not from the aussie mindgames or from the real or imagined demons that the curator is going to plant in the Sydney pitch. India must fear itself; the danger is from within, and guard against it. If it overcomes that it will find itself on the right side of history and, of course, good history. Bangladesh’s sulking should not be honoured even with a footnote in that narrative.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel