It’s Just Not Cricket...or is it?

Whatever happens for the rest of this second test, the defining moment that will almost certainly be remembered for years to come occurred just before tea on the third day. And in a match where Stuart Broad became the 12th Englishman to complete a Test hat-trick, you know it had to be something pretty unique.

As far as I am aware, the incident has yet to be tarnished by the suffix ‘gate' (why do journalists do this? Watergate was just the name of the hotel guys!) but Ian Bell's run-out has split opinions as to whether the Indians made the right decision in handing him a reprieve after being given out with the game already slipping away from them, in large thanks to Bell's knock.

Several former cricket legends including Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar have suggested that they should have upheld their decision to appeal over Bell's naive and frankly schoolboy error of leaving his ground (changing his story over whether he heard the umpire call ‘over' has not helped his image in all this by the way) before the ball was dead. The general consensus is that India (and a large portion of credit has to go to MS Dhoni) have made an honourable gesture by reversing, what was ultimately a correct decision, on the basis of the "spirit of the game."

Whilst it is often overlooked in our ‘sport is big business' era (can you imagine Wayne Rooney asking for his latest goal to be chalked off if he knew it had not crossed the line? No - me neither!) it is also a world where sport stars remain role models for the younger generation and sometimes (just sometimes mind) it doesn't have to be "win at all costs."

After the past few years of cricketing scandal after scandal, it is heartening to see the game still upholds some of its oldest traditions and values.

By Conan Jal