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Play by the rules

Ignorance is no bliss at the crease or in the shower

OVER AND OUT! Umpires are reaching more often for the rule book as cricketers are ignorant of the rules

The New Year could not have gotten off to a more newsy note on the cricket field. Surprisingly, two Hyderabadis were indirectly involved in the subject under discussion.

Umpire Ivaturi Sivaram declared Baroda batsman Himanshu Jhadhav out in a Ranji Trophy match last week for obstructing the silly-point fielder after he pushed one ball hard into the player. His mistake was to stop the ball that deflected off the fielder back into the crease.

With the UP captain Mohd Kaif appealing for obstruction dismissal, Sivaram, the square-leg umpire had no other go but to ask Kaif whether he was serious in his appeal. When Kaif answered in the affirmative, the umpire had to follow the rulebook and declare the batsman out who joined the list of names like Mohinder Amarnath and Inzamam-ul-Haq in this category.

The more famous incident involved Hyderabad's batsman V.V.S.Laxman having a `shower' when the debate was on whether Sachin Tendulkar could be declared `timed out' or not. Under normal circumstances, it was Laxman who should have been ready, padded up, to go next after Tendulkar.

Interestingly, Sivaram says that the rule only states that next batsman has to be at the crease within three minutes and the umpires are not bothered who is coming next - in India's case Ganguly or Laxman.

More importantly, the Indian brains-trust had always had the option of naming even a tail-ender as the next batsman and not necessarily Ganguly or Laxman if the umpires had to declare the next batsman timed out. For, the batting order can be changed at any time without umpires' knowledge.

The glaring difference between India team episode and the UP-Baroda incident is that while South African captain Greame Smith did not appeal (at the request of the umpires) which is mandatory for the timed-out dismissal, Kaif stood by his appeal for the dismissal of Jhadhav on grounds of obstructing the fielder.

Then there was the funny dismissal of Sri Lankan off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan against New Zealand in a one-dayer last month-end. Muralitharan was a victim of the written rule when he walked down the pitch to congratulate Kumara Sangakarra on completing a single to notch up his century. Since the ball was still in play, Murali was declared run-out.

The message is clear - cricketers please know the rules!

V. V. SUBRAHMANYAM

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