With Paul Collingwood having nails inserted through his hands, today is the perfect day to talk about Australia going back to number one on the one day charts.
The fact that they went past South Africa is even more perfect.
Why?
Here are two teams that would not hesitate to run out a batsman who had been knocked to the ground.
The great Brendon Julian did so in the Caribbean, knocking little battler Sherwin Campbell to the ground in what appeared to be a pre mediated hit, and then Australia ran him out.
South Africa would not hesitate to knock someone over and run them out, they probably just haven’t thought of it yet.
We now know England can join that list, whether that improves their one day prowess is yet to be seen.
The fact he apologised and was guilty about it says they probably won’t do it again, remember there is nothing more important to a cricketer than public opinion (IE: what his sponsors will think).
New Zealand getting upset is a bit much. Stephen Fleming used his go slow tactics to edge Australia out of a one day tournament, and McCullum doesn’t mind running out a batsman who is celebrating their team mates mile stones.
Even the great West Indies once ran out the legendary Dean Jones when he was bowled off a no ball and he started walking off, with Dujon telling Jones afterwards, yeah we knew it was against the rules.
Then again, knowing Deano, he probably deserved it.
India recently sent out a batsman with two right hand gloves, that was suspiciously close to the end of play, that suspiciously looked like time wasting. And have had more infringements than any other team in the last 10 years.
Pakistani players got away with more ball tampering than anyone other than Michael Atherton, or a man with crabs.
Sri Lanka allowed their captain to cheat every third time he batted for years, calling for a runner because of how fat he was.
This is the spirit of cricket.
So everyone shits on the spirit of cricket, should we remove the phrase from our vocabulary and shit away?I tell you it shits me that PC apologised. He’s only sorry that it didn’t win them the game.
should we remove the phrase from our vocabularyThat would be a good idea.
David, looking about the web this morning, you appear to be looking for a punch up. You’re packing a piece, right?
I’m willing to back DB up on this, Spirit of cricket my asshole.
Thank you for the only sane perspective on the incident.
Can yesterday’s incident be distinguished from the other examples of bad sportsmanship on the basis that there was a chance Elliot might have been injured?
Q, I am uncomfortable with being called sane. Mims, I don’t think the chance of injury had anything to do with it, Sidebottom didn’t run into him on purpose, he’s not Brendan Julian.
I didn’t think Sidebottom had done it on purpose either. But I wonder whether this is slightly different to any other example of taking advantage of a disadvantaged opponent (eg the Murali runout) because the opponent needed some medical treatment (which, by the way, I paid close attention to as he took his trousers down). I don’t know, I’m not really expressing an opinion, here, I’m trying to decide.
But Mims, I don’t see why that makes a difference. The question is whether morally England should have said, twas a dreadful mix up ol chap, go back to your spot and we’ll have another crack at you. I don’t think it matters whether he bumps him and he gets hurt or not hurt, the question is do you penalise a guy for being unable to complete a run because he bumps into one of your players.
Spigot, I felt like I was outnumbered by roughly 1.5 billion to 1 this morning. Everyone in the whole cricket world had gone soft, even Collingwood himself!
Im with u Uncle J :-)
If the question is do you penalise a guy for being unable to complete a run because he bumps into one of your players and it was a total accident, then I think yes, these things happen. I’ve been pondering the injury thing, and KP could have made a fuss last year when he was out after he was hit on the head and his helmet fell onto his stumps, and the Windies were all “yay wicket” and nobody even thought to pretend to care about whether KP’s head was ok. But he didn’t. And I adore Daniel Vettori, you all know I do, but not shaking hands at the end was rather petty.
I just saw the incident on Youtube, Elliot also was running on the wrong side of the wicket. He should be running on the other side to the non striker. If i did that as a kid my old man would have abused me from pretty much where ever he was.
There was loads of that actually, Jrod, from the England lower order too.
“Elliot also was running on the wrong side of the wicket.”Yeah, I find it strange that it keeps getting described as Sidebottom running into Elliot, when it was about as 50/50 as they come. Had Elliot run to his left then there would’ve been no collision, Sideshow would’ve collected the ball and it looked like Elliot would’ve been run out by miles*. Clearly wasn’t intentional on Elliot’s part, but it’s not the responsibility of the field to get out of the way of the runner, right? Particularly if they’re going for the ball.But then on the other hand, this is what Collingwood had to say when KP got run out by SA after a mid-pitch tangle with Pollock last year:”Sometimes you think common sense should prevail and that he should not be given out. Pollock impeded him whether he meant to or not.”Which makes an interesting contrast to say the least. :-)(*Well, probably. Never can tell with English fielding.)
Brendon Julian? Poor chap, he couldn’t imagine being involved in a dismissal any other way.
Samir, that’s what shits me, it was the only thing BJ ever did with aggression.
Is there video of the Julian/Campbell run out anywhere? I can’t find it on youtube.
Kym, I actually went looking for it and couldn’t find it either.
Would an historical reenactment be too much to ask?
Yes.