Monday, August 01, 2011

The biter bit?

The decision by the BCCI (Indian cricket authority) to veto the use of the Decision Review System in relation to LBW decisions in the current test series between England and India has come back to haunt them.  When Harbhajan Singh was given out LBW on Saturday it helped precipitate an Indian batting collapse, but had the decision been reviewed - as it surely would have been had the facility been there - it would have been overturned as slow motion clearly showed it was inside edge onto pad.  So India were the authors of their own misfortune?  Yes, up to a point, but even though the umpire missed the inside edge, what about the England cricketers - the bowler in particular?  I fear we've now reached a stage in cricket - the supposedly "gentlemen's game" - where batsmen who know perfectly well that they are out do not walk, and where fielders who equally well know that a catch has not carried, or that the ball has hit the bat before the pad, or has missed the bat altogether where a catch is claimed, now automatically hysterically appeal to the umpire in the hope that he'll make a mistake and give them the wicket.  Not the game it once was, I fear.

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