The Spirit of cricket and regulating cricket

There’s a major noisy and over-excited reaction doing the rounds in cricketing circles in England. It is all over Jonny Bairstow’s stumping during the recently concluded second Ashes Test which England lost.   

Bairstow’s dismissal occurred when England were five down and needed a further 178 runs to win: He ducked underneath a short ball from Cameron Green, scratched the crease with his boot and walked down the pitch towards his partner Ben Stokes at the non-striker’s end.   

As Bairstow began to leave the crease, wicketkeeper Alex Carey had gathered the ball on the bounce and, in one motion, under-armed a throw at stumps at the striker’s end.   

The on-field umpires referred the decision to TV umpire who gave the batsman out.   

The crowd - began chanting “Same old Aussies, always cheating.” As the Australian players walked through the long room at the lunch interval, they were booed and abused by some MCC members!   

England’s Captain Ben Stokes said he wouldn’t want to win that way. England’s coach Brendon McCullum said the teams wouldn’t be sharing a beer any time soon.   

Even UK’s Prime Minister got involved, with his official spokesperson confirming Sunak’s agreement with Stokes’ comments, saying “The PM agrees with Ben Stokes –he said he simply wouldn’t want to win a game in the manner Australia did...”   

The England’s grouse is that the manner of Bairstow’s dismissal breached the ‘spirit of cricket’. The reality the decision was within the rules of cricket and was adjudicated so by the umpire.   

The issue as ‘Alice’ in Lewis Carrol’s ‘Alice In Wonderland would have been wont to say, gets ‘curiouser and curiouser’. We Lankans remember very well the manner in which -during a Sri Lanka-New Zealand Test match at Christchurch. Our very own Muralitharan stepped out of his crease after completing a run to congratulate Kumar Sangakkara, who had just reached his century.   

McCullum the New Zealand wicketkeeper whipped off the bails and appealed... -Murali was given out.   

Strangely, the England coach McCullum who was part of that New Zealand team at the time did not feel ‘the ‘spirit of cricket’ had been breached in that instance.   

The reality is, England having lost the first test was desperately seeking to level the series when Bairstow was declared out by the third umpire. England went on to lose the second test as well.   

The bruhaha has nothing to do with the ‘spirit of cricket’ -it is just about winning at all costs.   

One can scarcely forget how at the height of Muralitharan’s career Australian spectators barracked him calling ‘no-ball’ as he came in to bowl. The then Australian Premier declared his action was illegal.   

Was this too, the ‘spirit of cricket’? Murali’s action was tested and proved legal. It was simply a case of being bad losers and a spirit of win at any cost.   

So what is the spirit of cricket?   

Cricket historians Derek Birley and David Underdown have shown cricket was a disreputable game in its early years and even corrupt. “Aristocrats were putting up their own teams and saying ‘1,000 guineas that we beat you’.   
MCC’s chief librarian Neil Robinson says there were lots of examples of devious practice.   

Laws evolved as a means of regulating the game the first set of known laws are the Articles of Agreement from a match in 1727 between the teams of the Duke of Richmond and Mr Alan Brodrick of Surrey.   

There was also more physical contact between the players in those days, and the Laws governing run-outs, hitting the ball twice and obstructing the field were designed to cut down on clashes between batsmen and fielders.   
Both Jonny Bairstow and Muthiah Muralitharan were runout according to rules brought in to create more transparency and prevent physical contact between players.   

It would be good for the game, if instead of whining about the ‘spirit of cricket’ teams play the game according to the rules of cricket.