It beggars belief that the BCCI chose to publicly air stump mike recordings to make a particular case – one that, if deemed serious enough, should have landed in the court of the ICC-appointed match referee, not used to deliberately fuel flames that are already burning bright.
I thought that the Lodha Commission and the Supreme Court had between them had ensured that the BCCI would be run by adults?
Not that I have any time for Steve Smith’s “disappointment” either. He was not merely stood there when the Ravi Jadeja-Matt Wade incident happened – he was a willing, even active, participant throughout.
The issue is not about the nature of the words exchanged, or even the fact that any words were exchanged at all. No one is naïve enough to imagine that it was all one-way traffic, all the time, that the Indians have not chattered at opposing players. The problem lies elsewhere.
I was calling the play over by over at the time, for FirstPost.com. And while I had no means of knowing what was being said, I made the point that Wade was repeatedly, deliberately, talking at Jadeja as the batsman was settling into his stance.
That is not sledging or mental disintegration or any of the other euphemisms that have entered the lexicon to provide loutish behavior a linguistic fig-leaf. The egregiousness of the incident lies in the fact that it was a deliberate, and repeated, contravention of the rules governing cricket. Smith, maybe, needs a refresher, so here it is:
Law 42, governing fair and unfair play, begins thus:
The responsibility lies with the captains for ensuring that play is conducted within the spirit and traditions of the game, as described in The Preamble – The Spirit of Cricket, as well as within the laws.
Item #4 is headlined ‘Deliberate Attempt To Distract The Striker’, and it says:
It is unfair for any fielder deliberately to attempt to distract the striker while he is preparing to receive or receiving a delivery.
Which part of that sentence does the Australian captain need explained to him in words of one syllable and accompanying hand-gestures?
The clip provides additional clarity to what anyone who was watching saw in real time: During that passage of play, the chatter was constant, high-decibel, and it occurred even as Jadeja was preparing to receive. On one occasion, he had pulled away and walked off to square leg to regain his equanimity, and as he walked back he got more of the same.
To repeat, Smith was not only part of it, he and his mates continued the practice even after Jadeja had once taken his frustration to the umpire.
Smith is “disappointed”? Frankly, so am I. He is a brilliant batsman – it is, in fact, a travesty that Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Virat Kohli are being held up as the triumvirate of modern batting when Smith has shaded them all. And as captain, ignoring his fairly ordinary game awareness for the moment, he has managed to hold a young team together through a very tough transitory period and is well on track to restoring it to a measure, at least, of its former pomp.
But these brain fades of his, and his seeming ignorance of cricket’s governing laws, are now becoming a marked blemish. If he saw the clip the BCCI aired, he has every right to be “disappointed” – not that it was aired, but that under the pressure of a rescue operation mounted by Jadeja and Saha, he so far forgot his role and responsibilities and became a willing party to some extremely sharp practice.
All of which is also why this was an issue the BCCI and team management should have taken to the match referee. It seems, though, that we live in different times, where the first and often last recourse is social media – not that it does anyone any good.
In passing – the BCCI did the reveal because it owns the feed and therefore it could. But has it considered for a moment that this is a two-edged blade? And that sooner or later, in an age where we celebrate this new-look, aggressive, take-no-prisoners Indian side, we can and likely will find ourselves on the business end of that sword?
No point asking, at the time, “Where were you in 1984 when the Sikh riots happened?” or some other equally asinine form of whataboutery.
5 comments
Thankfully, this chattering didn’t go too far. Jadeja’s response was quite mature. One has to just remember how Zidane reacted to all that chattering in his ear. And in such cases Zidane/Jadeja/Harbhajan gets pulled up (correctly) but the instigator is quietly transformed into a victim
Jadeja has been exemplary in how he handled that period, and how he responded to questioning afterwards. “We were discussing where to go for dinner after they lose the game” — a contrast from Kohli’s querulousness that I liked. As to the other bit, isn’t that how it goes always? The bully — in politics, in sport, wherever — is the first to claim victimhood after the fact.
I am glad Jadeja mentioned it at the prize distribution ceremony. Trying to get a batsman out, by hook or by crook is shameful. It’s fine if you try to get under someone’s skin. But flouting rules, and trying to distract a batsman while he is in his stance is disgraceful. Same with Smith asking for help from the pavilion about the referral. Smith in the Bengaluru match, and Wade in Dharamsala, should have been penalized by the Umpire / Match referee.
Chancea ille this article 🙂 Need to post a comment with a link to your article on The Daily Telegraph and tag Ben Horne
After the match referee’s response to Smith flagrantly cheating in the 2nd test, it probably makes sense for the BCCI/Indian team to just leave that office out of the picture and go directly to the press. Plus, throughout this series, CA has been posting creative screenshots to put ideas in the heads of Aussie trolls, so much so that the ICC had to come out and make an official statement about an LBW decision against Warner’s.
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