Devon DickRECENT EVENTS, on and off the cricketing field, have begged the question, "How's that?" Anyone who has played the game of cricket, which is a reflection in many ways on the game of life, would have asked of the umpire for a verdict by exclaiming, "How's zat?"
Take for example, match referee, Mike Proctor, awarding the third One-Day match based on the Duckworth system to India after the West Indies walked off due to the fact that two players were hit with bottle and stone. That was a very bad decision. This was the third straight match that there was crowd trouble of throwing things at players and burning things in the stands.
Wasn't it Australian Steve Waugh who threatened to take players off the field if there is a crowd invasion to celebrate even a century? How then can an Indian official claim that the West Indies team was making a mountain out of a molehill? Commentator Michael Holding has already demonstrated that it was a bad decision to award the match to India based on the Duckworth System.
It opens the door to home crowd supporters to disrupt a match when their team is ahead, based on Duckworth. It is argued convincingly that the match should have been awarded to the visiting team. So after yesterday's victory West Indies would be in the lead 4-1. Crowd control is the responsibility of the home team and if they could not get it right after three attempts the match should have been awarded to the West Indies.
In fact, the Indian authorities should have cleared the stand of all the persons from where the bottle-throwing incident originated. And next time, you can bet that supporters would be vigilant in preventing others from engaging in bad behaviour or would be quick to identify the troublemakers to the police. The Board should have been fined and the ground banned for a period of time from hosting matches.
Furthermore, the Duckworth system is to be used in the case of natural disasters not man-made disasters. The scores in the match was West Indies 300 runs after 50 overs while India was 200 for 1 after 27.1 overs. India was in a good position but in a game of glorious uncertainties any thing could happen with 101 more runs to get.
It was an awful decision. Perhaps, the West Indies should have protested differently after the initial walk off. They could have gone back on the field and have five slips fielders and everyone inside the circle and no one on the boundary. This would have made a powerful statement. In addition, if the ball went to the boundary then they should ask members of the Indian team to go and pick up the ball or better still ask the Indian officials, who think it is no big deal, to go and ketch the ball and risk being stoned!
It is also clear that the match referees have too much power. These are decisions for the umpires. It is the umpires that players appeal to and it is the umpire who should determine when play should resume and if it is safe to play and to whom the match should be awarded. The match referee's position is really a job for the boys who have retired from cricket. The match referee decides who is the man of the match. If there has to be a match referee let that person be a trained umpire.
People are finding work for the ex-cricketer who is not a commentator and will not go through the rigours of umpiring. Scrap the match referee and return the game to the umpires with the help of technology. How's that for a way forward? The most India should have gotten out of that match is that it be abandoned as a no-result rather than awarding it to India.
Thankfully, in the midst of that terrible decision there was a glorious second innings By the Hon. Herb McKenley. On Thursday last, CPTC, under the chairmanship of Dr. Hopeton Dunn and the management of acting CEO Kirk Buchanan, who was responsible for the camera work at the successful World Junior Games, launched a video on the life of then Hon. Herb McKenley. The 80-year-old Herb went up to respond after an evening of excellent speeches by the Hon. Burchell Whiteman, the Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, Howard Aris, Adrian Wallace, Mike Fennell, Dudley McKenley and an inspiring clip on Herb's life.
One would have expected that Herb would have attempted to recount that he is the only Olympian to have made the finals in 100 metres, 200 metres and 400 metres and to have medalled in the 100 and 400. He is the only one to have medalled in those three distances in a Pan Am Games. It is also said that at one time he held five world records.
In the speech of the evening, this former fast bowler for the All Schools team, with halting speech, did only one thing and that was to invite the narrator and producer of the video, Carey Robinson, whom he described as brilliant from school days, to come to the podium and stand beside him. That speech evening was all timing, class and beauty, which was a tearjerker. Now that is cricket!
The Rev. Devon Dick is pastor of The Boulevard Baptist Church, St. Andrew.
