Cricket as a sport faces a lot of issues. Match fixing, biased decisions and more. iSporter Akshay Iyer makes his debut with his views on yet another issue this sport faces; that of tampering with the ball! With the recent Afridi incident, here is what Akshay has to say.
If it wasn’t enough that Pakistan were completely outclassed and outplayed in the Tests and one-day cricket series in Australia, the actions of all-rounder Shahid Afridi in the final ODI at Perth on January 30, 2010 would have made even the most ardent Pakistani cricket fan look for cover!
Afridi was obviously feeling hunger pangs when he bit into the cricket ball not once, but twice during Australia’s run chase in the fifth and final ODI in Perth. Afridi, Pakistan’s stand-in captain at Perth, in his moments of indiscretion, was oblivious to the fact that all the cameras on the ground would not only capture his ball-biting act for the umpires and match referee Ranjan Madugalle to view at leisure, but his actions would be beamed across the world over and over again in time!
If the act in itself wasn’t embarrassing enough, Afridi’s explanation after the incident belied all reasoning. He is quoted to have said that “I did this to help my team win at least one match” and followed this up with the allegation that teams across the world tamper with the ball in some form or the other!
Afridi has now been banned for two Twenty20 Internationals, but the repercussions of his ball-biting act are going to be felt beyond those games for sure! His actions have brought into limelight yet again the pressure that international sportsmen face to win and the 'not-so-smart' decisions that they sometimes take for the sake of victory. Afridi, of course, would have thought that his actions would help his team, but truth be said, he obviously wasn’t thinking straight. If he had been, it wouldn’t have taken an Einstein to figure out that biting the ball is in-your-face cheating! He certainly let himself and Pakistan cricket down with that act of stupidity.
Pakistani cricketers have long been accused of ball-tampering and Afridi’s biting act, has only made those allegations all the more believable again. And now one hopes that the incidents in the past are nothing more than allegations! It is unfortunate that Afridi will now be remembered as the player who was banned for biting the cricket ball in the first match that he was captaining his country in. Though this incident is likely to haunt him for the rest of his cricketing career, he can hopefully get his own back by letting the bat and ball do the talking for him when he returns from his short ban.
And, lets also hope that not only Afridi and all the other cricketers, have learned that the ball is not to be bitten, but is to be used only for the purpose that it is meant for in the game of cricket! There are better things to eat fellas!
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a guest
said:
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... This incident only reaffirms that the Pakis had tampered with the ball during the Oval test too.. and all that walkout bit was to save face. Banning him for just T20s is a joke. How Stuart Broad and whoever else was pulling at the leather during the test against SA managed to escape unscathed is big surprise.. Blatant tampering.. Had it been a Paki player doing it , the actions and comments wudve been a lot harsher. |
Akshay Iyer
said:
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... Well ... whatever happened in that infamous Oval Test is now best left assigned to history, but Afridi's actions do give more than enough room for doubt as to Pakistan's innocence in that match. As for Afridi getting only a two-match ban, that's for the ICC to decide, but it does seem a bit on the lenient side. Stuart Broad has been getting away with a lot of things in recent times, and unless he gets his act in order, he is a ban waiting to happen! |
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