Board War: Was Powerful BCCI Able to Bring An Apology and Punishment Out of SLC?

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Sreelata YellamrazuAug 19 2010

The drama witnessed in the last couple of days brought about a few interesting questions. Were Sri Lanka reprimanded for violating the spirit of cricket alone? If so, can this precedent be followed?

virender sehwag kumar sangakkara mahendra singh dh

The BCCI's weight appears to have forced the Sri Lankan Cricket board's decision in taking action against its own players to avoid being subjected to the ICC's intervention, which would no doubt have been brought in had Sri Lanka sat on obvious evidence.

However, what is interesting to note is that certainly aggrieved parties feel the punishment was meted out for not necessarily violating the spirit of the game but because of the India's grief over Virender Sehwag being denied a century.

There is no law that states the Sri Lankan captain could have denied the batsman a run,. In fact it is a popular custom around the cricket world that when a batsman is on the cusp of a milestone, all pressure is laid on denying him a century in a bid to ensure that it is made hard on him and the opposition to do something about it.

But the problem lies when obvious instructions are laid out that are in violation of the code of play. In this instance, the 'advice' given by Tillkeraten Dilshan to Suraj Randiv that he could bowl a no-ball is atrocious on two fronts - firstly, from the perspective that it goes against the run of play and secondly, because it is coming from an inexperienced international crikceter who should know better that matches are won on honesty, integrity and fair play and that by giving such an advise, he is undermining the bowler from playing to his true strength, which could well have prevented the run anyway.

There are plenty of cases where the spirit of the game has been questioned. Several times during a Test match, four runs are given away if only to keep the batsman on strike. Sledging is a contentious subject because it violates the gentleman's ethics. And there are plenty more instances where one does not need to go looking with a comb to find malice in the name of a hard fight.

What matters though is that perhaps the BCCI, with its clout, has been able to exercise a degree of unexpressed threat where had the Sri Lanka Cricket board decided to turn a blind eye, more venom would have followed.

It is interesting to watch one Asian team going after another. The question is whether this will turn into a regional battlefield or whether it will send certain other foreign teams to turn weary and think twice about employing some tactics or whether the spirit of the game will take on greater meaning in the cricket world? One gets the feeling this is not quite the closed chapter yet.

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