The myth surrounding the Gentleman’s game

Back in 2011, during India’s tour of England, Ian Bell batting on 137 was given "run out" in the most bizarre circumstances. England were well on their way to another win and Bell was in top form. Just ahead of tea on Day 3, Praveen Kumar had made a diving attempt to stop a boundary off Eoin Morgan’s bat but the ball had bounced off his leg as the fielder fell over the boundary. It was deemed as a four but then Kumar had relayed on the ball to the fielder at short-leg, who took the bails off. Meanwhile, Bell and Morgan, who believed that the umpire had called "over" were on their way back to the pavilion for Tea. But the umpires, on watching the replays, had realised that the ballad not gone for four and hence declared Bell out. However, at the start of the final session, Bell was back as India captain MS Dhoni had withdrawn the appeal over tea.

Bell’s dismissal was well abiding the rule book but Dhoni’s act was rated highly in terms of sportsmanship. But then again, it was equated with the ‘Gentleman’ myth. Just as the way Ravichandran Ashwin’s ‘mankading’ of Jos Buttler in the 2019 IPL was a highly controversial one as moral policing came in the way of following the rules. The act of ‘Mankading’, deemed absolutely legal by the MCC, has often been the biggest example wherein the cricket fraternity believes it’s against the spirit of the game and because of that the ‘Gentleman’s game’ takes a hit.

But, unfortunately, even today fans mistake spirit with class. The word Gentleman was, in fact, a highlight of the social classification - a euphemism for discrimination- that was prevalent in those times. While it has nothing to do with sportsmanship, something that was only discovered and established by characteristics of different players, it has plenty to do with the order of class in England a few hundred years ago. So precisely, from WG Grace to Virat Kohli, all mavericks of the game are as much ‘Gentlemen’ as any other cricketer.