Sunil Gavaskar

By Sunil Gavaskar.

London, UK,  July 29, 2003

Only after he retired did people realise that Gavaskar’s tongue is as precise as his cricket bat was. Here, he assails the purveyors of ungentlemanly conduct in the gentleman’s game. (The MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture by Sunil Gavaskar on July 29, 2003)

Gary Sober and G R Vishwanath

…Will we ever get the likes of Sir Garfield Sobers and G R Vishwanath again? That greatest of cricketers,  Gary Sobers, not only indicated more than once to umpires that he had caught the ball on the bounce but also declared his innings closed once in a test match in spite of having two of his main bowlers injured and left a challenging target for England to get — which they did, thanks to Colin Cowdrey. If a captain does that today, of course, the Anti-Corruption Unit of the ICC would be breathing down his neck, but all Gary wanted was to enliven a dead series.

Bob Taylor & Ian Botham

G R Vishwanath was the captain who recalled Bob Taylor when he was given out by the umpire. Vishy, who was at first slip, immediately realised that Bob’s bat had brushed the pads, which has misled the umpire into giving him out caught behind. Like the true sportsman he is, Vishy walked up to the umpire and politely withdrew the appeal. The match was delicately poised then the subsequent partnership between Ian Botham and Bob Taylor took England to a winning position. India lost that test, but Vishy is remembered for that and loved all the more for it.

Not out

Today, thanks to the win-at-all-costs theory, appeals are made even though the fielders know that the batsman is not out. There is the other side, of course, where a batsman knows he is out but stays put and rubs some other part of his body if it’s an appeal for a catch or shows his bat if there’s an appeal for lbw. With the game being marketed aggressively by TV, the rewards have become high, and rightly so, but it has to a great extent taken away from the spirit of the game, where bowlers applauded a good shot and batsmen acknowledged with a nod a good delivery from a bowler who beat them. While today, in order not to give any psychological advantage to the opposition, there’s hardly any applause from the fielding side when a batsman reaches a fifty or a century.

It’s hard to understand how applauding concedes any advantage to the batsman, but we see it increasingly where, barring the odd fielder, the others feign total ignorance of the batsman reaching a landmark.

Rohan Kanhai

Lance Gibbs

This is in stark contrast to my first series in the West Indies, where one could sit with the greats like Gary Sobers, Rohan kanhai and Lance Gibbs at the end of a day’s play and ask them about batting and how to improve. They were more than happy to give good sound advice, even though it was to an opponent and could be used against them the next day to their team’s detriment. Rohan Kanhai occasionally grunted his disapproval from first slip if I played a loose shot. It was just the fact that they had supreme confidence in their own ability and believed that helping an opponent only produced good cricket and was good for the game.

Don Bradman & Norman Yardley

How about the England team under Norman Yardley raising three cheers for Don Bradman when he came out to play his last innings? Mind you, if the England players knew that such gestures brought tears to the great man’s eyes and got him bowled for a duck, then they would have done it every innings!

Such a gesture is unthinkable today where the opponents hardly greet each other and if there’s anything to say it’s invariably not very pleasant. The thinking is that with the stakes being so high, any friendly overture takes away from the competitiveness of the player.

Now I have heard it being said that whenever there’s been needle in a match, words have been exchanged. That may be true, but what was banter in days gone by — and which was enjoyed by everyone, including the recipient of it— today has degenerated to downright personal abuse, and which is why the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ had to be written.

…When West Indies were the dominate force in the game in the 1970s and 1980s, with their line-up of star studded batsmen and army of lethal quick bowlers, administrators moved to curtail their domination that muzzled the pace bowlers with a restriction on the number of bouncers to be bowled per over.

Today, though there is a Code of conduct, the verbal bouncers go on pretty much unchecked and, unless something is done quickly about it, the good name of the game that we all know will be mud. Just look at any school game anywhere in the world and we will see bowlers having a go at the batsman. They see it on TV from their heroes and believe that it is a part of the game, and so indulge in it.

Verbal Aggression

Here it is crucial for the coaches to step in and tell them, while the kids are at an impressionable age, that this is wrong and cricket has been played for years without indulging in personal abuse. Maybe we should tell TV producers that, just like they don’t show any of the streakers at the ground anymore, they should not show close-ups of players verbalising each other. With cameras being so good, it is easy to lip-read and kids can see that it is not the Bible nor the Koran nor the (Bhagvad) Gita which being quoted on the field.

The sad part is that very little is being done about it. If a player even so much as glares at the umpire or stays a micro-second longer at the crease after being given out, he is hauled up and in trouble. If there is protection for the umpire from the players, why not protection to players from abusive players?

Kapil Dev, Sachin, Azhar

W G Grace

…Cricket is a game that envelops all manner of people from various countries, color, language, faith and age. The good doctor W G Grace played tests when he was nearly 50 and Sachin Tendulkar began when he was barely 15. In all this diversity, it is the skill of the player that stays in the mind’ eye long after their age and eras are over.

Colin Cowdrey

…Let me end by repeating part of what Sir Don Bradman said about the game. We are all custodians of the game, and the game will prosper if we can leave it better than we found it. It is something that we must all Endeavour to do — and it is achievable if we work sincerely towards it. I am confident that we can do it and when–and not if— we do it, the Colin (Cowdrey) sitting up there with the gods will smile and say, ‘Well done, chaps—that’s the spirit.’