What is your
impression of ‘1919’ ~ exactly 101 years ago !! Ravichandran
Ashwin is a genius ! .. .. before you
read further, do you know the World record with which - Kesrick Omari Kenal
Williams is associated with ? Born in
St Vincent and the Grenadines, this fast
bowler made his first-class debut for Windward
Islands in 2011.
The 12th IAAF World
Championships in Athletics were held in
Berlin, Germany in Aug 2009. The
majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and
racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg Gate. The men's 200 metres was
held at the Olympic Stadium – the race
favourites were Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt. Gay entered the competition as the
reigning world champion, championship record holder, and 200 m world leader
with 19.58 seconds. Bolt, the current Olympic champion and world record holder,
had a season's best of 19.59 seconds. The last time the two athletes raced was
at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, where Gay beat Bolt by a margin of
0.15 seconds. Osaka bronze medallist Wallace Spearmon was the only other
athlete to run under twenty seconds that season and former Olympic champion
Shawn Crawford was also competing. Up-and-coming athletes Alonso Edward, Steve
Mullings and Ramil Guliyev were among the season's fastest sprinters prior to
the championships.
Everything else was
irrelevant .. .. it was Bolt – not only winning but creating a World
record. Bolt's
winning time - 19.19* - looks more like a grandparent's year of birth
than a time for the 200m, but although it may take a while to digest, that is
the WR for more than a decade now. Former
200m World record-holder Michael Johnson had said earlier on that day that he felt Bolt was too tired to improve
on the record of 19.30. But then again, Bolt does not know the meaning of
fatigue. Back in 1996 when Johnson set the world record of 19.32, it was widely
acknowledged as one of the toughest records on the books. But someone winning the race @ 18.90 but being denied the
record is totally justified.
The 200 metres (also
spelled 200 meters) is a sprint running event. On an outdoor race 400 m track,
the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of
techniques are needed to successfully run the race. The race attracts runners from other events,
primarily the 100 metres, wishing to double up and claim both titles. This feat
has been achieved by men eleven times at the Olympic Games: by Archie Hahn in
1904, Ralph Craig in 1912, Percy Williams in 1928, Eddie Tolan in 1932, Jesse
Owens in 1936, Bobby Morrow in 1956, Valeriy Borzov in 1972, Carl Lewis in
1984, and most recently by Jamaica's Usain Bolt in 2008, 2012, and 2016. The first record was timing of 20.6 set by
Andy Stanfield and every second matters in WR.
This month, American Noah
Lyles was denied a new 200 metres world record in the Inspiration Games after
it was revealed he ran only 185m. The 22 year-old's time of 18.90 seconds would
have usurped the 19.19-second mark set by Jamaican great Usain Bolt in 2009. Lyles,
running in Florida, set the time racing alone against competitors
simultaneously sprinting on tracks in Europe. Given his personal best is 19.50,
the time was immediately challenged. After initial confusion, his official
result eventually read "shorter distance" with the American starting
from the wrong lane. Swiss television said he had only run 185m.
How fair it
would be give the man a WR when he runs only 185m ie., short by 15m ? – sounds straight
and logical – now read what Ravichandran Ashwin has tweeted .. .. on a Cricket
rule
Cricket rules have
seen changes – there have been attempts to accommodate more than 11 too –
remember the substitute rule. Many of the
rules have been blatantly against the bowlers, loaded in favour of
batsman. In some ways, the fall of
Windies began with the ‘bouncer rule’.
Can we imagine a rule when a batsman would not be allowed to loft the
ball over long on for a Six for a 2nd time in the over ? or denied a
square cut more than once in an over – but – a bowler cannot bowl a second
bouncer in an over. In 1991, the
International Cricket Council (ICC) introduced a "one bouncer per batsman
per over" rule in an attempt to discourage use of intimidation.
The ‘No-ball’ has been one
of the most dramatic rules in modern cricket history. In a recent Test series
between Pakistan and Australia had as many as 21 no balls went unnoticed. The on-field umpires have a
lot to keep their eye on including something as intricate as a field placement-
and hence they are missing ! is the explanation. In Oct 2007 came the ‘free-hit’ rule. Initially only foot fault no balls resulted in
a free hit. From 2015, the rules were changed so that all no balls result in a
free hit.
A no-ball is a delivery
which does not count as one of the bowler's six legitimate balls in one over. In Dec 2019, the first Twenty20 International
between India and West Indies in Hyderabad witnessed another push of technological
advancement in the game. The auto no-ball, officially introduced for the first
time in India, became part of playing conditions for the ongoing series. India
won the high scoring game by 6 wickets as Virat Kohli’s smashed 94 (not out). Kesrick William’s foot became part of a
history as he overstepped and was called by the
Auto no-ball system.
More on Cricket
: Laws 30 to 39 discuss the
various ways a batsman may be dismissed. Law 38: describes Run out. A batsman is out if at any time
while the ball is in play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the
popping crease and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing side. A batsman may be dismissed Run out whether or
not a run is being attempted, even if the delivery is a no ball (i.e. not a
fair delivery). The rule is very clear in the description “Running out a
batsman "backing up". As a
bowler enters his delivery stride, the non-striking batsman usually 'backs up'.
This means he leaves his popping crease and walks towards the other end of the
wicket so that it will take him less time for him to reach the other end if he
and his batting partner choose to attempt a run. When the batsman leaves the
popping crease before delivery, the bowler may attempt to run the non-striker
out. This is clearly legal.
The earliest of these type
of out involved Vinoo Mankad and occurred during India's tour of Australia on
13 Dec 1947 in the second Test at Sydney. Mankad ran out Bill Brown when, in
the act of delivering the ball, he held on to it and whipped the bails off with
Brown well out of his crease. The Australian press strongly accused Mankad of
being unsportsmanlike, though some Australians, including Don Bradman, the
Australian captain at the time, defended Mankad's actions. After this this type of run out came to be
known as ‘Mankaded’. There have been
instances of such outs in Tests and
in One dayers which includes :
Brian Luckhurst by Greg Chappell, England v Australia, Melbourne,
1974-75; Grant Flower by Dipak Patel, Zimbabwe v New Zealand, Harare, 1992-93
and Peter Kirsten by Kapil Dev, South Africa vIndia, Port Elizabeth, 1992-93.
Ashwin has
revived the discussion around non-strikers backing up before the ball has been
bowled, suggesting that technology be used to spot and penalise the errant batsmen,
by either disallowing the runs scored off the ball in question, or giving the
bowler a "free ball". Ashwin
went on to explain - on Twitter - how non-strikers, by backing up, could give
their team an advantage as they could put a better batsman on strike. He said
penalising the batsman could address the "grave disparity" between
bat and ball in what he called an "increasingly tough" environment
for the bowlers.
The debate has divided
opinion afresh since last year, when in an IPL game, Ashwin, the Kings XI
Punjab captain at the time, ran out Rajasthan Royals' Jos Buttler at the
non-striker's end without delivering the ball. While Ashwin did not clearly define what he
meant by "free ball", it could mean a bowling version of a free hit -
no runs allowed, but the batsman can be dismissed.
Simple logic –
a sprinter cannot win a 200M race by winning 10 or 20 M short ! ~ why should a
batsman be allowed a run by running couple of yards shorter ?
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
28.7.2020
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