Brian Lara showed with the magic wand that is his cricket bat, what a wonderful talent he is when he scored a fabulous double century and in the process, went past Allan Border as the highest run-getter in Test cricket. There has never been any doubting his prodigious talent and he went several notches higher in public esteem and not just the Australian public, when he spoke effusively about the man whose record he overtook. Lara spoke of how Allan Border had become an icon for him after he saw him battle against the fearsome West Indian pace attack and score 98 and 100 in the Test at Trinidad, which is his hometown. Lara said that he learnt determination and a ‘never say die’ approach from Border and thanked AB for giving him the impetus to play Test cricket. This was fantastic stuff from the new world record-holder, for invariably when a record is broken, the previous record holder (unless it’s Bradman, of course) is overlooked by the man who has overtaken him. The media too asks for reactions from the person whose record is equaled or broken, but seldom if ever is the new record-holder asked about the previous one. Not that Lara was prompted to do so by anybody, but he spoke from his heart and that’s when words are at their truest.
Border too spoke in the same self-effacing manner that marked his batting about Lara, when he said that Lara was in a different league with his stroke production and range of shots. That may be true, but it was AB who held Australia’s batting together in the 80s when there were defections on rebel tours to South Africa as well as the retirement of some of the big names in Australian cricket. It was under Border that Australia first won the World Cup in 1987 at the Eden Gardens, Calcutta and it was under his leadership that Australia started to show the streak that was to take them to the top of international cricket in both forms of the game. Not surprisingly, the laptop generation will think it was Steve Waugh who took Australia to the top, but make no mistake, it was under Border that Australia first took that giant stride forward.
Lara’s double ton did not save West Indies from another defeat as the Australians completed a 3-0 series win. The unkind ones will say that Lara’s double century came after the series was decided, but then that is the lot of the champions to be not given their due by those who cannot even hold a candle, leave aside a cricket bat. The same people will make any excuse for their favorites while denying other champions their due.
The West Indian attack is pathetic to say the least and today looks incapable of bowling even a schoolboy side out twice, so why blame Lara for defeats when at least he, with his bat, makes the defeat have some style.
Even as Lara was getting his due accolades from the cricketing world, another champion Shane Warne had to appear before the match referee Mike Procter after being reported by the match umpires for dissent against one of the decisions given by them. Now Procter comes from pretty much the same school of cricket as the Australians, where sledging and gamesmanship are all part of trying to beat the opposition. So it was no surprise that he found Warne ‘not guilty’. However, without going into the merits and demerits of that decision, it is clear that the bowlers have it that much easy to escape the dissent allegation than batsmen. As it is, there is a very thin line between disappointment and dissent and in the hurly-burly of Test cricket, that line can often get blurred.
If a batsman after being given out stays at the wicket for a second longer, has a look where he is and then simply shakes his head, he is bound to not only get pulled up, but also lose a substantial portion of his match fee for doing that. If a batsman shows his bat to the umpire when he is given out leg-before, thereby indicating that he had got an inside edge, then too he will be brought before the match referee. But a bowler can stare at the ground or look up at the skies with his hands on his hips or shake his head and then walk slowly back to his bowling mark, pointedly looking away from the umpire, and he will never even be reported. By the same token, a bowler can ask the umpire on his way back after a disallowed leg-before appeal if the ball was missing off-stump or some such thing and not get reported.
A bowler after being called for overstepping can look at the popping crease for a minute or more with his hands on his hips and shake his head and yet he won’t get a call from the match referee. Bowlers often say that it’s a batsman’s game, for they feel all the laws are made to favor the batsmen, but while that may hold true, there’s no doubt that batsmen feel that the code of conduct favors bowlers more than it does their tribe.
What needs to be taken into account is that one mistake whether by the batsman himself or the umpire means he has to walk back to the pavilion while a bowlers gets another ball to bowl even if a mistake is made by him or the umpire. So if anything, the batsman should be given a little more flexibility to show his disappointment. Of course, it is an experienced match referee who can make the tough call whether it is reasonable disappointment or dissent.
Cricket at the highest level is played with fervor by players who are proud to be wearing their country’s colors and who are thus trying hardest to do well, and so if they feel that an umpiring decision has been hard on them, they should be allowed to show their disappointment, so long as it is within reasonable limits. It’s a tough call for the match referee, but that’s why they are there in the first place.
