Madugalle’s
verdict for cricket
By Trevine Rodrigo in Melbourne, Australia
Ranjan Madugalle and his band of merry
men in the match referee’s fraternity of the International
Cricket Council (ICC), will debate the fate of one of
the game’s most contentious yet greyest areas
when they piece together the fragments of evidence to
support controversial umpire Darrel Hair’s allegations
of ball tampering against Pakistan this week.
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Ranjan Madugalle and his band
of merry men - huge task ahead |
Then there is the other matter of bringing
the game into disrepute to be considered although experts
predict the Pakistanis will now level counter allegations
of pre-meditation on the umpire’s part for driving
the issue.
Madugalle, who holds the eminent position
of Chief Match Referee on the ICC panel, a rare honour
for one of its members from the Asian bloc, will chair
the crucial meeting which will attract the world’s
focus because the outcome is critical to the future
administration of the game. What emerges from these
findings will not only target the administrative issues
but it will also have far reaching implications into
the sensitive topic of how much power match officials
should be afforded if the best interest of the game
is to be preserved.
Without interfering with the due process
of the investigation and its outcome, a simple analysis
suggests that unless the evidence presented is totally
conclusive, the Pakistanis should not be crucified on
the mere perception of their past deeds.This is in no
way to be construed that the ball tampering did not
occur, because such incidents have been noticeably on
the rise over the past few years, exposed by the large
number of television cameras bringing strife to players
commentators and officials of the game.
It is also a known fact that players
such as Sahid Afridi and Shoiab Akthar have had their
run in’s with the game’s administration
in the past with their misdemeanors on the field.
But the crux of this issue that should
sway the panel is the glaring evidence that 26 cameras
around the ground did not pick up any suspicious activity
by the fielding team. Furthermore, the ball was 52 overs
old and had taken a fair battering to the fences particularly
by England batsman Kevin Pieterson where plenty of damage
to its outer shell could have been caused by the concrete
stands and the fence.
With all things deemed fair in sport,
the evidence at face value suggests that the umpire’s
observation and subsequent decision cannot be wholly
substantiated unless there was enough evidence to prove
that someone observed the untoward happening on the
field.
There has been little to be gleaned
from the incident in so far as the officialdom is concerned.
The game’s hierarchy have been mostly tight lipped
about anything to do with it since the infamous Darrel
Hair email to the ICC rocked the administration to its
very foundations.
It now appears that the ICC have hit
the panic button to show the world that all’s
well within its ranks. But the cracks are becoming increasingly
evident that there is an undercurrent of unrest within
its portals of power.
So, it is back to Madugalle and the
investigators and their unenviable task of sorting out
this mess. The general feeling that is emanating from
this part of the globe is that the rule book may need
a bit of tinkering with. Sub –clauses may need
to be inserted similar to the illegal arm bending stipulation,
so that the game’s main focus is not to exclude
the spectators who play as important a part as the players
in maintaining the game’s popularity.
Forfeiting matches is certainly not
the best method of drawing crowds to the turnstiles
so a broader and more mature outlook is a definite must
if the dust is to settle on this matter.
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