Commonwealth nations are an unusual lot.
We are willing to accept our national failing when it comes to the big things. Indians and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis will be the first to accept that our societies are poor, illiterate, mostly uncivil and often undemocratic.
However we draw the line somewhere and that line usually is drawn over cricket. That we might suck at it sometimes is never accepted.
I remember when Sri Lanka became a Test-playing nation and its debut matches were played with India. They were a striking-looking team with bowlers like Rumesh Ratnayake and Asanthe de Mel, who were quicker than India’s, and some pretty competent batsmen.
On that first tour 30 years ago, Kapil Dev (if I am not mistaken, his first ball was clouted for a six by Aravinda D’Silva) was so infuriated by the umpiring that he pronounced that Lankans would never win when they played outside their country. He did not have to wait very long to find out he was wrong, of course. But at that moment he was unwilling to accept that his country’s mighty team could be undone by a little neighbour.
Blame the umpires
And so we come to the current World Cup. Bangladesh was recently hammered by India in a totally one-sided quarterfinal. This entire tournament, the Indian bowling, which has unusually become as good as the batting, has ensured that the opposition is under the cosh for the full 100 overs, whether fielding or batting. And so it was also in this game. Other than a large patch of overs in the middle of the Indian innings, when the run rate dropped but wickets were not lost, India dominated the whole day.
But to read the Bangladeshi papers, there was a conspiracy against their team. “Controversial umpiring greatly mars Bangladesh’s hope for semis,” ran the headline in the nation’s biggest English newspaper, Daily Star.
The paper felt that Rohit Sharma’s reprieve when he was 91 and hit a Rubel Hossain full toss "down the throat" of midwicket was the match’s turning point. The batter went on to make another 46 runs, and in the ultimate scheme of things this error probably did not mean much, given how much batting India had remaining at that stage.
Others too thought this was a mistake. Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman tweeted: “Bad decision from Gould, was definitely not above the waist. Lucky break for rohit. This can b the difference in getting xtra 20 runs.”
The fact is that umpires make bad decisions. When Bangladesh came to bat, Imrul Kayes was out in the last ball of the first over, caught behind off Umesh Yadav, and the snickometer showed it, but the umpire did not respond to the appeal. No reference appeared about this in the Bangladeshi papers when they were whining about the umpiring, naturally.
Stuff of conspiracy
Also the fact is, in this case it was not Gould’s fault, nor was it his call. Dar at square leg had immediately signalled the no ball (even before the ball had been caught). Now Dar may have been mistaken in believing that the ball was over waist high (it was lower by about a couple of inches), but it was hardly the stuff of conspiracy. However, as I said in my opening paragraph, this is cricket. The Bangladeshis held aloft a banner in the stands which read ICC: Indian Cricket Council.
This formulation came in fact from Ramiz Raja, who tweeted: “Well done @ICC (indian cricket council). u guys were completely sold out!!”
How Raja had arrived at selling-out based on this decision is a mystery and he was not the only one. Shoaib Akhtar tweeted: “Poor Bangladesh played well... There was cheating in the match as well. But next time...”
Who had cheated? This was left unsaid. Raja later probably realised he had overdone it (or was more likely overwhelmed by abuse from India’s twitter army) and tweeted: “Excellent game, excellent performance! Congratulations Team India for 7 consecutive wins.”
But in Bangladesh, the idea that they were cheated of a win still ran strong.
Writing on the wall
International Cricket Council president Mustafa Kamal saw the incident through Bangladeshi nationalism rather than reason. He said that the umpiring error “could be deliberate. Though I cannot say it absolutely but it looks like that. I know in cricket, human errors are quite possible, but how can a dozen decisions go against Bangladesh? It was very, very poor umpiring.” To this he then added his evidence of why the world was against his poor nation.
This was the “slogans on display boards across the Malbourne ground, which read ‘Jitega bhai jitega, India jitega’.”
Kamal said that “umpiring errors killed the game, but I was surprised how could messages supporting India be displayed on the giant screens. It looked as if India’s win was pre-decided.” Well, the fact is that India’s advertisers control world cricket and its giant screens. The rest of the world should get used to it because it will not change.
In Bangladesh, the papers ran many headlines on this aspect including “Bangladesh to appeal against controversial umpiring: ICC” and also “ICC should prosecute for war crimes”, which I thought was overdoing it. When I read that particular story it turned out to be the International Criminal Court.
I turned the page, and so should Bangladesh’s fans.
We are willing to accept our national failing when it comes to the big things. Indians and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis will be the first to accept that our societies are poor, illiterate, mostly uncivil and often undemocratic.
However we draw the line somewhere and that line usually is drawn over cricket. That we might suck at it sometimes is never accepted.
I remember when Sri Lanka became a Test-playing nation and its debut matches were played with India. They were a striking-looking team with bowlers like Rumesh Ratnayake and Asanthe de Mel, who were quicker than India’s, and some pretty competent batsmen.
On that first tour 30 years ago, Kapil Dev (if I am not mistaken, his first ball was clouted for a six by Aravinda D’Silva) was so infuriated by the umpiring that he pronounced that Lankans would never win when they played outside their country. He did not have to wait very long to find out he was wrong, of course. But at that moment he was unwilling to accept that his country’s mighty team could be undone by a little neighbour.
Blame the umpires
And so we come to the current World Cup. Bangladesh was recently hammered by India in a totally one-sided quarterfinal. This entire tournament, the Indian bowling, which has unusually become as good as the batting, has ensured that the opposition is under the cosh for the full 100 overs, whether fielding or batting. And so it was also in this game. Other than a large patch of overs in the middle of the Indian innings, when the run rate dropped but wickets were not lost, India dominated the whole day.
But to read the Bangladeshi papers, there was a conspiracy against their team. “Controversial umpiring greatly mars Bangladesh’s hope for semis,” ran the headline in the nation’s biggest English newspaper, Daily Star.
The paper felt that Rohit Sharma’s reprieve when he was 91 and hit a Rubel Hossain full toss "down the throat" of midwicket was the match’s turning point. The batter went on to make another 46 runs, and in the ultimate scheme of things this error probably did not mean much, given how much batting India had remaining at that stage.
“When the replay was shown, the error in Ian Gould’s judgment became apparent with repeated viewing as the ball was dipping sharply when the batsman made contact. Such decisions are usually given by the leg umpire but in this occasion Aleem Dar chose to remain silent, to the mystery of Bangladesh fans.”
Others too thought this was a mistake. Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman tweeted: “Bad decision from Gould, was definitely not above the waist. Lucky break for rohit. This can b the difference in getting xtra 20 runs.”
The fact is that umpires make bad decisions. When Bangladesh came to bat, Imrul Kayes was out in the last ball of the first over, caught behind off Umesh Yadav, and the snickometer showed it, but the umpire did not respond to the appeal. No reference appeared about this in the Bangladeshi papers when they were whining about the umpiring, naturally.
Stuff of conspiracy
Also the fact is, in this case it was not Gould’s fault, nor was it his call. Dar at square leg had immediately signalled the no ball (even before the ball had been caught). Now Dar may have been mistaken in believing that the ball was over waist high (it was lower by about a couple of inches), but it was hardly the stuff of conspiracy. However, as I said in my opening paragraph, this is cricket. The Bangladeshis held aloft a banner in the stands which read ICC: Indian Cricket Council.
This formulation came in fact from Ramiz Raja, who tweeted: “Well done @ICC (indian cricket council). u guys were completely sold out!!”
How Raja had arrived at selling-out based on this decision is a mystery and he was not the only one. Shoaib Akhtar tweeted: “Poor Bangladesh played well... There was cheating in the match as well. But next time...”
Who had cheated? This was left unsaid. Raja later probably realised he had overdone it (or was more likely overwhelmed by abuse from India’s twitter army) and tweeted: “Excellent game, excellent performance! Congratulations Team India for 7 consecutive wins.”
But in Bangladesh, the idea that they were cheated of a win still ran strong.
Writing on the wall
International Cricket Council president Mustafa Kamal saw the incident through Bangladeshi nationalism rather than reason. He said that the umpiring error “could be deliberate. Though I cannot say it absolutely but it looks like that. I know in cricket, human errors are quite possible, but how can a dozen decisions go against Bangladesh? It was very, very poor umpiring.” To this he then added his evidence of why the world was against his poor nation.
This was the “slogans on display boards across the Malbourne ground, which read ‘Jitega bhai jitega, India jitega’.”
Kamal said that “umpiring errors killed the game, but I was surprised how could messages supporting India be displayed on the giant screens. It looked as if India’s win was pre-decided.” Well, the fact is that India’s advertisers control world cricket and its giant screens. The rest of the world should get used to it because it will not change.
In Bangladesh, the papers ran many headlines on this aspect including “Bangladesh to appeal against controversial umpiring: ICC” and also “ICC should prosecute for war crimes”, which I thought was overdoing it. When I read that particular story it turned out to be the International Criminal Court.
I turned the page, and so should Bangladesh’s fans.
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