Tharoor dropped and ............ legitimacy of Steve Smith's catch !!

At Abudhabi, Australia beat Pak by a solitary run in the third one dayer..  and do you remember Mudgal ?  yes Justice Mudgal or the  Mudgal Committee  appointed by a bench of Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice J.S. Kehar of the Supreme Court, to probe the allegation of betting and spot-fixing ?

Nearly a week ago, former union minister and Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor had “incensed” the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) leaders, irrespective of factions, uniting them in calling for disciplinary action. The reason, according to them, was that he praised prime minister Narendra Modi and his “Swachh Bharat” campaign. Today, the Congress party dropped him as party spokesperson for the same crime. 

At Abu Dhabi, the  incident occurred in the 18th over of Pakistan's chase of 231. After Xavier Doherty delivered the ball and before Fawad made contact with his paddle sweep, Smith had moved from first slip towards leg slip to intercept the shot. When Fawad played the sweep, he would not have known there was going to be a catcher at leg slip. By the time the ball hit bat, Smith was almost past the wicketkeeper and was able to take a simple catch down the leg side. The umpires Richard Illingworth and Ahsan Raza discussed the catch with the third umpire Nigel Llong before giving Fawad out. According to Law 41.7, which governs movement of fielders, "Any significant movement by any fielder after the ball comes into play, and before the ball reaches the striker, is unfair. In the event of such unfair movement, either umpire shall call and signal dead ball." Law 41.8 defines significant movement for close catchers as: "For close fielders anything other than minor adjustments to stance or position in relation to the striker is significant."

Back home, the  Supreme Court of India will wait for the Mudgal Committee report before it decides whether to intervene with the postponement of BCCI's annual general meeting to November 20. With sidelined BCCI president N Srinivasan set to contest for another term, the Cricket Association of Bihar had filed an interlocutory application on September 16, asking the court to direct the BCCI to hold its AGM with immediate effect. Aditya Verma, the CAB secretary, had also stated in his application that Srinivasan standing for the BCCI elections was illegal as his name featured in the Mudgal probe.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.