Well this is my first blog and I decided that it be on the one thing about which I cannot stop listening, watching or talking. Cricket....and the recent beamers, jelly beans and whatnot...has certainly caught my attention and I thought I will name this blog:

Poachers to Gamekeepers.

Gavaskar and Atherton have taken it upon themselves to clean cricket of the great evil sledging. I am quite concerned by this. At the outset I wonder if they are the right persons. Does playing a certain amount of international cricket alone make you the sole authority on the moral aspects of the game, maybe it does. However for some of us whose exploits have been limited to the village green or maidan the spirit of the game is no less. You walk when you think you have nicked the ball.

I believe that we plebeians could give these patricians a run for their money. While I was in school we used to play cricket regularly. The matches were very competitive and the results where known in the whole community. Standing ovations and cyclostat (a forerunner of the Photostat) copies of scorecard where plastered in the classroom for all the girls to see. For us at that time it was as big as it got.

On occasions when we did not have the required 11 each like instanes when one person was grounded for not doing his homework or was late we had a fielding position called as CF or common fielder. This means that you fielded for both sides. I cannot recall a single instant when a CF dropped a catch or returned the throw in slowly. This was partly because you never knew when the shoe would be on the other foot and partly because ewe believed that it was just not cricket to do so.

So it begs to question what is cricket? Maybe in that sense sledging is not cricket but then contrary to what Sunil Gavaskar and the likes are trying to tell us sledging is not a modern thing it has been there for ages…Well in fact I believe even the cave man might have indulged in a bit of chest thumping and finger wagging and as long as it is all in the spirit of competitiveness I guess it is all right. Even if it is not cricket I think it is human like the extra salt you add to a perfectly cooked meal. Not really necessary but essential if you want to add that hint of spice and so let us accept that it is a necessary evil and move on.

I guess and I am guessing big time when I say Sunny was probably never articulate at times of stress though the man could bat coolly enough at times of stress. Being a great batsman is one thing being a moralist is an entirely different ball game. Even if Sunny has forgotten viewers remember when he tried to walk out along with his batting partner when given out LBW to Dennis Lillie. Whatever happened to spirit of cricket then? Was it not against the spirit of the game to show dissent against an umpire’s decision. In the current age he would have automatically be given a match ban for something like that.

A couple of bible lessons will not be amiss for M Atherton as well. Here is one man who had was it dirt or something else when he was the England captain…. shame…. and did he fall on the sword and take a match ban I do not think so. He who has not sinned let him cast the first stone is the lesson that Atherton should be made to learn or rather get Dolores Umbridge to make him write it hundred times.

Now I agree that it is wrong to say that you should be forever be stopped from saying your mind because of your past behaviour but then you should at least express a sense of contriteness when you argue for the guillotine after supping with Marie Antoinette. Something which I feel that Atherton has not done in his recent article.

Donot get me wrong I do not condone or offer no apology for the beamer bowled by Sreesanth for I believe in the old adage, innocent until proven guilty and the same goes for the jelly beans I agree that no one single English player should be singled out as guilty for the same. However as the bean had no rhyme or reason to be on length Vaughan’s apology was apt just like Sreesanth’s was. Let us leave it at that and just remember a few things.

The English lost a home test because of poor first innings batting on a seaming pitch.

They were lucky that they did not lose by an innings because of a couple of decisions that went their way.


Grace is not just a past English cricketer it is a characteristic. It is, to borrow the words of Kiplingsomething which makes you a Man. Sadly the English press should learn not to complain about beamers and jelly beans being the cause of the English defeat as firstly it is just not cricket and secondly is a disaster for English cricket.