Five gestures by cricketers on the field which proves why cricket is a gentleman’s game!
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Cricket has been regarded as a gentleman's game since it’s inception, but there have been a lot of incidents such as the monkey-gate incident which has happened in the past that will suggest otherwise. Here are five incidents which will prove that cricket is still a gentleman’s game.
1. M.S.Dhoni hands the captaincy unofficially to Ganguly in his last Test match!
It was the 10th of November and Sourav Ganguly was playing his last Test match at Nagpur against Australia under the captaincy of M.S.Dhoni. It was exactly eight years to the day since he first captained India in a Test against Bangladesh. Now it was a new era, the Dhoni Era. MSD had just taken up Test captaincy after his successful T20 World Cup 2007 campaign. Many senior players were getting the sack after Dhoni had come to power and most of the Indian fans were under the impression that Dhoni was behind the sacking. But something amazing happened on the final day of the Test. Dhoni had the perfect farewell gift planned for Ganguly. With one wicket away from victory, Dhoni allowed Ganguly to set the field and passed on the captaincy unofficially to Ganguly as a humble gesture to one of India’s most successful captains. This incident was the first of many that proved that M.S.Dhoni is a selfless cricketer.
2. Flintoff consoles Brett Lee in the Ashes series of 2005
The Ashes series is all about bragging rights and it had been 16 years since England had last won the Ashes Urn. It was a matter of pride and they were hungry for it. They showed it in the way they played in the Ashes Series of 2005.
But the incident that was talked about a lot happened in the 2nd test at the Edgbaston. The Test match went down to the wire with both the teams going for the win. But in the end, England came out on top by winning the Test match by 2 runs courtesy of one of the most brilliant bowling spells in Test cricket by Andrew Flintoff. But it was Steve Harmison who put the finishing touches to the match in the final minutes of the game. With only 2 runs to win the match, Kasprowicz edged the ball and got caught behind. The crowd went wild and so did the England players. While all of the English players were busy celebrating, Andrew Flintoff broke off from the celebrations, approached an absolutely devastated Brett Lee and started consoling him by first giving a handshake and hug. This is one of those moments that reminds us that cricket is indeed a gentleman’s game.
3. Indian team retracts Ian Bell’s run-out appeal
It was the 31st July 2011 and India were touring England. It was the second Test of the N Power series and England was settling well with Ian Bell scoring a brilliant century. It was the last ball before Tea, Eoin Morgan and Ian Bell were on the crease and Morgan was on strike. He flicked the ball to the boundary, and Praveen Kumar the fielder tumbled on the ball and as a result of that, it seemed like a boundary. The batsmen took 3 runs and were unsure if it was a 4 or not and both the batsmen started walking towards the pavilion thinking that the over was done. They were not aware that Praveen Kumar had thrown the ball, A.Mukund had removed the bails and appealed for a run-out until they saw on the big screen that Bell was given out. Bell and Morgan were shocked about the decision. There were a lot of boos in the stadium for what had just happened. During the interval, Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower went over to the Indian dressing room and asked them to retract the appeal and the Indian cricket team decided to do it. After the break, the Indian team was greeted with claps from the England cricket team and the English fans after finding out that India had, indeed, decided to retract the run-out appeal.
4. Sri Lanka calls back Symonds after the Umpire gets an LBW wrongIt was the 22nd of February, 2004 and the Australians were playing Sri Lanka in the 2nd ODI of their tour. Australia had just lost 3 wickets quickly and Sri Lanka were gaining momentum. Australia were just 56 runs away with 6 wickets in hand and victory was in sight. At this crucial moment, Marvan Atapattu gave the ball to Kumar Dharmasena. Kumar Dharmasena was pinging down his flat off breaks and Andrew Symonds tried to pull one to the leg side, mistimed it and the ball went on to hit the pads. The Sri Lankans appealed and umpire Peter Manuel gave it out.
Gilchrist and Symonds were stunned by the decision. Symonds did not retaliate and just walked away, shocked. Immediately the umpire realized that Symonds edged the ball before getting it onto his pads. He consulted Billy Bowden who was the leg umpire at that time after which there was a discussion with the Sri Lankan players and the captain, Marvan Atapattu, who agreed to revert the decision, and Symonds was called back. Australia went on to lose the game by 1 run but Symonds remained not out till the end.
5. Warner kisses the ground where Phil Hughes got knocked down after reaching 63The cricketing world had been left devastated by the loss of the Phil Hughes in December 2014, and a week later, Australia took to the field for their Test match against India at the same venue. It was an emotion-filled day for Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
The day began with Australia winning the toss and electing to bat first. Warner and Rogers were settling well. In the middle of an audacious innings at the SCG in the fourth Test, David Warner turned a ball off his hip down to fine leg to take his score to 63. When David Warner reached 63*, the number of runs Phil Hughes scored in his last game, he went across to the patch of turf where Hughes lay unconscious after a Sean Abbott bouncer, kissed it and then looked at the heavens. This gesture prompted an ovation from the crowd. After the day was over, he talked about how Phil Hughes was special to him. “My Test debut was with Hughesy, and taking that spot in the nets where he could have been at the same training session felt so hard. There were serious thoughts there about pulling out of the Test; I didn’t want to play. But in the end, my emotions took over and I said I have to get out there and do it for my mate. I know from now on, whenever I get to 63, it will be nerve-wracking, but I will raise my bat to the sky”
