Spirit of Cricket

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Pic Credit: BCCI


By Naman Suri


“I still think the history of the game suggests it’s a spirit of cricket thing… You don’t expect players to do that,” Warner was quoted as saying by ‘news.com.au’ 



The law related to the spirit of cricket has been thrown into a fray for quite some time now, over running out of non-striker if he goes out of the crease before the bowler releases the ball. This might be stemming from the fact it pre-empts everything: the bowler hasn’t bowled the ball yet, and the batsman hasn’t gotten into the act yet, so it feels like being cheated because of the non-consummation of the cricketing act. This non-consummation is considered against the spirit of cricket, and that’s why players have been raising their concern over the law, despite MCC incorporating it within law 38 pertaining to legitimate runouts.

But what is this spirit of cricket?

"Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the Spirit of the Game. Any action which is seen to abuse this Spirit causes injury to the game itself".

This means that the laws of cricket clearly explain the expectations of how participants will behave on the field. And any action which is seen to abuse this spirit causes injury to the game itself. The major responsibility for ensuring the spirit of fair play rests with the captains.

Mankad

But Mankad has been a big thorn in the way of maintaining the spirit of the game, according to many experts. The year is 1947, and one of India’s cricketers, Vinoo Mankad ran out of Bill Brown in a Test match in Australia for being out of the crease when Mankad was in his bowling delivery stride. This has now been in debate forever now, whether it is morally correct to run out a batsman even before the play has begun. This has further been stemming from the statement that “Cricket is a gentleman’s game”. 

But MCC has now made this kind of run out legitimate and within the spirit of the game, but the debate still ensues, which got sparked in the last match of the Indian women’s tour of England, where Deepti Sharma ran out the non-striker, England’s Charlotte Dean. The cricket world is caught in a dilemma of whether it is right or wrong. Is it right for a cricketer to use every possible lacuna in the laws of the game to get an advantage in the quest to win? This is a question that is being asked as the world is progressing towards truthfulness and transparency.


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