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| Tuesday, 25 January 2005 |
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Comment by Elmo Rodrigopulle Neutral TV commentators Sponsors of Television cricket commentaries would do well to soon change to neutral commentators, otherwise viewers would soon lose interest and maybe only watch the action and not listen to the commentators. We are prompted to say this after listening to the completely one sided and biased commentaries done during the England-South Africa series now in progress in Protealand. Commentators from England - David Lloyd, Ian Botham, David Gower, Bob Willis and Nasser Hussain who are behind the mike and who are completely dominating are at times sickening and boring to listen. This English team rave and brag over the deeds and actions of their cricketers, using all the adjectives possible, and very rarely do they do the deeds of home team cricketers justice. Considering that these English commentators have all been top class performers, it is surprising that they are being one sided. By acting that way, they are only losing their credibility and also heaping scorn on their sponsors. The game of Test cricket changed to neutral umpires, because home umpires were beginning to rule in favour of their teams. So if the English commentators continue in this vein, it won't be long before neutral men are seen and heard describing the game to TV viewers. Match referees wanting? A tremor struck the ground of ICC match referees when the two Test suspension slapped on Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was overuled by Tim Castle of the ICC Appeals Commission. From that moment it is apparent that a lot of uncertainty has crept into match refereeing. If this is not so how could one explain the actions of Clive Lloyd and chief of match referees Ranjan Madugalle. Lloyd who must be feeling bad that his earlier decision had been overturned reprimanded Shoaib Akhtar for showing Hayden the way to the pavilion, while a similar act by Andrew Hall in the England-South Africa series saw Hall being fined by Madugalle. Now comes a situation where former West Indian captain Clive Lloyd is once again the centre of attention and attraction after fining England captain Michael Vaughan his entire match fee for commenting on the umpiring decisions to call off play for fading light. The Professional Cricketers Association in which Vaughan too is a member is threatening legal action. We hope that would not be the case. However we must state that had some Asian country made legal threats, the cry would have been that, that's not cricket. ICC must explain Muttiah Muralitheran has gone on record saying that no one has asked him not to bowl the doosra and that he could bowl whatever delivery he wants. According to him not even the ICC has asked him not to bowl the doosra. Now if the bowler is to be believed then the International Cricket Council and Sri Lanka Cricket have a lot of explaining to do, because everyone was under the impression that his doosra has been banned. No wonder then that Muralitheran bowled the doosra during the official Charity game in Melbourne and challenged match referee Chris Broad who reported him and the ICC to take action if they dared. Muralitheran I am sure understands that the ICC deals with Governing Bodies and not with individuals. |
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