The morning after...

It's almost as though fate waits for me to commit myself before pulling the rug from under my feet.  Regular readers will probably have realised by now that this blog is written well after the event.  Yesterday I was bemoaning what I saw as a general lack of sportsmanship in the game of cricket, and then on Sunday we had an act of sportsmanship when India allowed an English batsman to continue even though, under the strict rules of the game he had been run out.  So three cheers, yes?  Well certainly two, maybe even two and a half, but perhaps not the full three.  Why not?  Well firstly because it wasn't so much India's decision as their response to a request by England   In other words it was reactive rather than proactive.  And then it was a decision only taken after some lengthy discussion.  Remember when footballer Paulo di Canio, presented with an open goal with the opposition goalkeeper lying injured on the ground, caught the ball rather than head it into the empty net?  Now that was sportsmanship - an instinctive feeling that that was the right thing to do.  No thinking about it.  So like I say - two, maybe two and a half cheers.