Lan Bell clanger takes toll on Spirit of Cricket: Atherton
LONDON: Ian Bell’s controversial “non dismissal” during the second Test between England and India subverted the laws of the game and had nothing to do with the Spirit of Cricket, former England captain Michael Atherton said on Monday.
Bell was run out in farcical circumstances off the last ball before tea on the third day of the second Test at Trent Bridge, when the England batsman walked off assuming partner Eoin Morgan’s previous shot had gone for a boundary when in fact Praveen Kumar had fielded the ball just inside the rope.
With the ball still alive Abhinav Mukund removed the bails and India’s muted appeal was upheld and Bell given out for 137, prompting boos from the fans and a show of dissent by the departing England batsman.
England coach Andy Flower and captain Andrew Strauss went to the visitors’ dressing room at tea to ask India, whose coach is ex-England supremo Duncan Fletcher, if they wanted the appeal to stand. India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni then chose to withdraw the appeal.
India’s players were greeted with a chorus of jeers as they returned to the field for the final session but when centurion Bell re-appeared, the boos were replaced by an ovation for the tourist’s sportsmanship. Atherton, however, believed it was the wrong outcome.
“Dhoni will be hailed as a great sportsman for his actions and there is no doubt that by withdrawing his appeal, he rescued what has so far been a hard-fought and good-spirited contest,” Atherton, wrote in The Times on Monday.
“Things might have deteriorated had he not done so. Which is not to say he was right to do so. Bell was guilty of doziness and of forgetting the first rule that any young batsman is taught: you don’t leave your crease while the ball is still live.
“In this instance, some spurious notion of the spirit of the game has actually subverted the laws of the game, and, therefore the natural progression of the game.
“Dhoni will be congratulated for his sportsmanship... but he would have been well within his rights not to have withdrawn the appeal regardless of the unpopularity and possible ramifications that would have inevitably followed.”
Atherton went further, suggesting that if anyone had brought the Spirit of Cricket into question, then it was Bell, who was eventually out for 159 to put England in a commanding position to take a 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
Meanwhile, former England captain Nasser Hussain said Bell was fortunate. Hussain, writing in Monday’s Daily Mail, said: “I must say when I was England captain, in the heat of the battle, I would have appealed, definitely.
“I am not sure I would have done what (India captain) Mahendra Singh Dhoni did and withdrawn the appeal.” “His (Dhoni’s) gesture in the best interests of the game will be remembered for a long time,” added Hussain, one of several former Test players working as broadcasters at Trent Bridge.
Bell was run out in farcical circumstances off the last ball before tea on the third day of the second Test at Trent Bridge, when the England batsman walked off assuming partner Eoin Morgan’s previous shot had gone for a boundary when in fact Praveen Kumar had fielded the ball just inside the rope.
With the ball still alive Abhinav Mukund removed the bails and India’s muted appeal was upheld and Bell given out for 137, prompting boos from the fans and a show of dissent by the departing England batsman.
England coach Andy Flower and captain Andrew Strauss went to the visitors’ dressing room at tea to ask India, whose coach is ex-England supremo Duncan Fletcher, if they wanted the appeal to stand. India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni then chose to withdraw the appeal.
India’s players were greeted with a chorus of jeers as they returned to the field for the final session but when centurion Bell re-appeared, the boos were replaced by an ovation for the tourist’s sportsmanship. Atherton, however, believed it was the wrong outcome.
“Dhoni will be hailed as a great sportsman for his actions and there is no doubt that by withdrawing his appeal, he rescued what has so far been a hard-fought and good-spirited contest,” Atherton, wrote in The Times on Monday.
“Things might have deteriorated had he not done so. Which is not to say he was right to do so. Bell was guilty of doziness and of forgetting the first rule that any young batsman is taught: you don’t leave your crease while the ball is still live.
“In this instance, some spurious notion of the spirit of the game has actually subverted the laws of the game, and, therefore the natural progression of the game.
“Dhoni will be congratulated for his sportsmanship... but he would have been well within his rights not to have withdrawn the appeal regardless of the unpopularity and possible ramifications that would have inevitably followed.”
Atherton went further, suggesting that if anyone had brought the Spirit of Cricket into question, then it was Bell, who was eventually out for 159 to put England in a commanding position to take a 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
Meanwhile, former England captain Nasser Hussain said Bell was fortunate. Hussain, writing in Monday’s Daily Mail, said: “I must say when I was England captain, in the heat of the battle, I would have appealed, definitely.
“I am not sure I would have done what (India captain) Mahendra Singh Dhoni did and withdrawn the appeal.” “His (Dhoni’s) gesture in the best interests of the game will be remembered for a long time,” added Hussain, one of several former Test players working as broadcasters at Trent Bridge.
Published by Unknown
on 07:39.
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