Underarm ball and intentional no ball to Sehwag, when sportsmanship was put to shame in cricket

New Delhi. On the sports field, more importance is given to showing sportsmanship than winning or losing. In today’s professional times, when a lot is at stake on winning, this feeling is disappearing. Take cricket for example, till a few years ago, in case the opposition batsman became a ‘victim’ of a wrong decision by the umpire, the captain of the fielding team did not hesitate to call back the player who was returning to the pavilion. Indian team captain Vishwanath, MS Dhoni and Pakistan’s Imran Khan have done this. However, this is rarely seen now.

On the contrary, there have been incidents on the cricket field when the spirit of sportsmanship has been shattered. To win the match, the teams and their captains adopted such tactics that the sports lovers found their success worse than defeat. The ‘bodyline strategy’ adopted by England against the Australian team is the biggest example of this. Recently, during the World Cup 2023, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan’s appeal for ‘time out’ against Sri Lankan batsman Angelo Mathews can be considered a recent example of this. In the match, Mathews was not able to take the strike in the stipulated time despite reaching the crease due to the helmet strip breaking, so Shakib appealed for ‘time out’. Despite the umpires’ request, when he/she was not ready to withdraw the appeal, the ground umpire had to declare Mathews out. The time out rule has been in cricket for years but as a goodwill measure, it was never used in international cricket before Mathews. Shakib had to face severe criticism in this matter.

Unlucky bowler, dropped catches of three batsmen, all three had made the top score in the test

Let us look at those special incidents on the sports field which tarnished the spirit of sportsmanship.

West Indies bowlers’ ‘arbitrariness’ against New Zealand

In the Christchurch Test against New Zealand in 1980, West Indies speedsters like Michael Holding and Colin Croft behaved arbitrarily and the umpire looked helpless in front of them. Captain Clive Lloyd also did not try to discipline his/her bowlers. Angered by an umpire’s decision, Holding angrily kicked the bowler’s end stumps and made them fall. After this, Colin Croft also started misbehaving and used abusive language. When umpire Goodall complained about this to Lloyd, he/she shrugged it off and said, ‘If you have a complaint against the bowlers, then talk to them yourself.’ This made Croft even more autocratic, he/she bowled a ‘long’ no-ball and made the bails fall. Not only this, he/she also used abusive language against the umpire.

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Greg had his/her brother Trevor Chappell throw an ‘underarm ball’

Another incident that brought shame to cricket happened in February 1981 in the Melbourne ODI between Australia and New Zealand when Greg Chappell ordered his/her younger brother Trevor to bowl an underarm ball to deny the Kiwi team a win. The Kiwi team needed 6 runs on the last ball to tie the match. To avoid a six, Australian captain Greg Chappell asked Trevor to bowl an underarm ball (rolling the ball). Batsman Brian Mackney could not hit a big shot on it and New Zealand lost the match. Although according to the rules of that time, underarm ball was not illegal but doing so was against the spirit of the game. Apart from Greg Chappell’s elder brother Ian, who was commentating in the match, many cricket legends also expressed their displeasure over this. After this incident, underarm bowling was banned with immediate effect.

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Justin Langer dropped the bails and then…

Most of the Australian cricketers are considered undisciplined. In 2004, during fielding in a Test match against Sri Lanka, Justin Langer tried to cheat by dropping the bails but was unsuccessful. On the last day of the match, Sri Lankan players batted throughout the day, which annoyed the Australian fielders. During this, Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist saw the bails fallen and asked the umpire about it. Shane Warne did not hesitate to say that there was no one here and I saw the bails fallen on the wicket. Probably it fell from Hasan Tilakaratne’s bat. When the umpires saw the replay, it was found that Langer intentionally dropped the bails while passing close to the wicket and moved ahead quickly. The Australian team had to be embarrassed when their dishonesty came to light.

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Runout appeal against a batsman who falls after colliding with the fielder

In 2008, in the Oval ODI against New Zealand, Collingwood did not withdraw the appeal and Kiwi batsman Grant Elliot had to be run out. At one point in this ODI match, New Zealand needed 26 runs from 39 balls to win. Meanwhile, Kiwi batsman Elliot collided with England’s Ryan Sidebottom while trying to take a run and fell on the field. England’s fielders ran him/her out. In such a situation, the fielding team often withdraws the appeal showing sportsmanship. When the ground umpires ran out England captain Grant Elliot, Paul Collingwood When asked if he/she wanted to reconsider the team’s appeal, he/she flatly refused. In such a situation, the umpire had to declare Elliott run out. New Zealand paid the price for Collingwood’s unsportsmanlike behavior in the match by winning the match by one wicket.

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Randiv bowled a no ball so Veeru could not score a century

On 16 August 2010, during the ODI between India and Sri Lanka in Dambulla as part of the triangular series, Suraj Randiv deliberately bowled a no-ball to stop Virender Sehwag from completing his/her century. With the help of one run obtained from this no-ball, India won the match by 6 wickets but Sehwag had to return to the pavilion remaining unbeaten on 99 runs. Sehwag had hit a six on this no-ball. Since India had already won the match by getting one run due to the no-ball, the six was not added to Veeru’s score and he/she got stuck at 99 runs. Later, Randiv himself and the Sri Lanka Cricket Board apologized to Sehwag for this incident.

6 years ago on this day, Heva Kaluhalamullage Suraj Randive Kaluhalamulla did this, a six was hit, but I remained 99 not out pic.twitter.com/iwhOFdtQNL

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) 16 August 2016