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| Tuesday, 12 October 2004 |
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by Elmo Rodrigopulle Warne to go past Murali Sometime during the Second Test between Australia and India beginning on Thursday, Shane Warne would equal and go past Muttiah Muralitheran and grab the title as the highest wicket taker in Test cricket. When that moment arrives, Warne would certainly punch the air in delight and do the jig of joy and there would also be tremendous rejoicing and celebrations in Australia. But with Muralitheran bound to return after recovering from surgery, it would be interesting to watch how long Muralitheran would allow Warne to pocket that record. Undoubtedly Warne bowls the most difficult art in spin bowling. Leg spin, googly bowling is the most taxing and Warne must be congratulated for his patience, perseverance, determination and dedication in continuing to bowl this difficult aspect. Had the catches offered by the Indian batsmen been taken, Warne would have equalled and gone past Muralitheran in the Test that was just completed with the Kangaroos wining by 217 runs. Bad umpiring The umpiring in the First Test that India lost to Australia was to say the least bad. Both teams suffered in this connection, but victory went to the team that played the better and more imaginative cricket - Australia. There were many bad decisions. The man to suffer most was the dashing Indian opener Virender Sehwag in the second innings. Sehwag was ruled out LBW when it was obvious that the ball had hit his bat before striking his legs. He was ruled out and while walking past the umpire, unable to hold back his disappointment and quite rightly so, said some verbals to the umpire. The end result was that the batsman was fined 65 per cent of his match fee while the umpire who committed the fault got off smiling and scot free. To say it was a travesty of justice would be no fault. TV commentators boob The most irritating thing to see when watching cricket on TV is when the commentators roll out the 'mat' and show their heroics when a batsman is ruled out leg before wicket. By doing this they are not only humiliating and ridiculing the umpires, but only showing the cowardice in them. An umpire has split seconds to give his decision, while the commentators in their arm chairs have the benefit of the 'mat' to adjudicate. Viewers sure would have laughed their sides out at this incident. When Indian batsman Parthiv Patel was ruled out LBW in the second innings, the initial reaction of the commentator was to shout himself hoarse that the batsman was plumb out and hail the umpire's decision. But they presto. When the 'mat' was rolled, the same commentator contradicted himself saying that it was not out, pitying the batsman and blasting the umpire saying that when the batsman was hit, he was not in line etc and concluding by saying that it was another umpiring error. It is time that the TV commentators stopped their cowardly heroics. Stale question The first question that TV commentator Ramiz Raja asked skipper Marvan Atapattu after he won the toss beating Inzamum in the first triangular game in Pakistan was: 'You're missing Muralitheran?' Now Atapattu has been asked that question umpteen times. He must be sick of replying. What Raja should have done was to have asked Atapattu as to how is it that he continued the same winning trend without Muralitheran? What Muralitheran has done has been appreciated, applauded, rewarded and written in the books. Probably Raja was bankrupt for questions. Good for football The gutty Sri Lankan footballers fought back gallantly to hold the more powerful and better trained Turkmenistan from Russia to a 2-all draw in their World Cup Qualifying round (Group B Asian Zone) under lights at the Sugathadasa Stadium on Saturday night. Football no doubt is enjoying some of its best moments in the game. Earlier they lost 0-1 to Saudi Arabia in Saudi. That was great considering that the Arab nation had figured in the World Cup finals. Then they held Indonesia recently and this draw against Turkmenistan should do their confidence a lot of good when they play the 'return' against Saudi in Saudi next month. Football officials were elated and it was nice to see the broad smiles writ on the faces of President FFSL DIG Gamini Randeni, the irrespresible Manilal Fernando, Chrisantha Perera, CEO FFSL, Premadasa, Abeysekera and coach Sampath Perera all overjoyed that the footballers silenced their critics with this wonderful display. |
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