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Pot Kettle Black

by Mahek

Scene 1: Sri Lanka v/s England at Johannesburg

Angelo Mathews is run out attempting a second run. He would have probably not made his ground even if the bowler hadn't accidentally impeded his line of running. Mathews throws a major tantrum. Andrew Strauss, the opposing captain withdraws the appeal and Mathews stays at the crease

Scene 2: India v/s Sri Lanka at Nagpur

Gautam Gambhir pushes the ball to mid on and takes off for a single. Chanaka Welegedera takes a brief look at the batsman and tries to get back to the stumps. Well, only if the stumps are five yards away from where they usually are. Mathews takes aim and throws down the stumps while Gambhir bangs into the bowler and is well short of the crease. The batsman throws his bat in disgust while the Sri Lankans celebrate. The commentators decide to ignore Welegedera's actions and call it an unfortunate run out.

Scene 3: Australia v/s India at Brisbane

Gautam Gambhir drives Michael Clarke to mid-off, the bowler moves across and takes out Tendulkar with a tackle, pulling him down. Tendulkar isn't bothered but Ravi Shastri goes ballistic in the commentary box and you can hear him ask someone in the background to put up the replay. He is clearly unhappy about Clarke's behaviour and makes sure everyone knows about it.

There are two issues to consider here. The first one is that the player who was called back when he felt he was obstructed was more than happy to celebrate effecting a similar dismissal. His captain seemed to have no problem with that either. This is the same captain who felt his team lost out on atleast 500 runs because of umpiring mistakes.

The second, and the more important issue is that of how people perceive similar situations completely differently based on their prejudices. We keep talking about how cricketers and officials from white countries use different yardsticks to judge people of different races when we are no different. One wonders how Gavaskar would have reacted if the last name of the bowler who impeded Gambhir was Johnson instead of Welegedera. It's no use calling out the Athertons and Healys for their biased attitude when our so-called greats do the same from the comfort of their commentary box. The cricketing world has been split down the middle and neither side is willing to give an inch. I hope it changes. If it doesn't, I know what sport I won't be encouraging my kid to take up.

10 comments:

straight point said...

if you can not make the difference between a player literally pulling down non striker and this gambhir incident don't blame shastri or gavaskar for it...

however i love/hate both but the example is just your prejudice against them which you have aired on different occasions...

We keep talking about how cricketers and officials from white countries use different yardsticks to judge people of different races when we are no different.

i also object to the word WE here... coz you are sweeping everybody with single brush here based on events interpreted by YOU...

Mahek said...

The question is one of intent. If you cannot see the intent in Welegedera's actions you can't really fault the umpires and match referee when they interpret incidents the way they do.

There have been enough examples of "US" judging cricketers by different yardsticks, so please don't try and adopt the Holier Than Thou argument. Oh wait, that's what we love to do!

straight point said...

and how does this gives you right to sweep all people who are not white/black under that same carpet...?

if if it does... than more powers to you... i have nothing more to add here...

Mahek said...

If only you weren't delicate enough to take it personally.

straight point said...

my question still stands...

Mahek said...

Because it's all over the internet my friend. Look around and you'll see people calling Chris Broad, Ian Healy, Darrel Hair, Mike Procter racist. You may or may not be biased but the majority of people are. It's so ingrained in us we don't even see it. You may disagree with me on this if you like, I'm not trying to win a trust vote here.

Anonymous said...

Sangakara is the most opportunist crap out here. he did not mind cos if he called back Gauti then he would have lost on few more runs.

well anyways lankans are famed for playing poor and against the spirits of cricket.

why blame sunny for it.

Homer said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCHjNj6lF_4

As the video shows "Tendulkar isn't bothered but Ravi Shastri goes ballistic in the commentary box and you can hear him ask someone in the background to put up the replay. He is clearly unhappy about Clarke's behaviour and makes sure everyone knows about it." is not how it played out!

Gaurav said...

"If it doesn't, I know what sport I won't be encouraging my kid to take up." ROFLMAO !! That last sentence is fantastic. Love it. So you won't like your son to be involved in an international pseudo-racist incident while playing international cricket. That's good parenting boss. Major overreaction, but great parenting nevertheless. Hats off.

Mahek said...

Thanks Gaurav. Thankfully there are a number of other sports where the establishment isn't intent on shooting itself in the foot.