How was he out?....run out!

From M.C.A. Hassan in Auckland, New Zealand

As the Sri Lankan cricket team gets ready to face the Kiwis in the second test at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, a debate is raging among sports enthusiasts and members of the public over, what One News channel called the “Muthiah Muralitharan Run-out row”.

A talk show participant in ZB Newstalk radio called Murali “Demon Murali” who has to be contained, an obvious reference to his dashing success in taking wickets at the last match. The match at Basin Reserve is been watched with acrimony on one side and fear on the other of “demon” Murali.

According to the weather forecast, the weather for the test match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka would be fine.
In the meantime we read mixed comments about the incident.

A scathing editorial in the New Zealand Herald immediately after the incident called “the run–out of Muthiah Muralitharan a disgusting performance by New Zealand’s cricketers”.

Referring to this editorial, reader Ian Hutchins of St. Heliers said: “Brendon McCallum’s shock at the adverse reaction shows just how low our cricket manners are.”

Referring to Brendon’s statement, “I’m a proud New Zealander, I’ve done nothing wrong”, the same reader said, “He did nothing wrong because the rules allow what he did. But, as a sportsman, I say that he is the worst sort of person to be representing this country.

“The dismissal of Muralitharan was something I hoped I would never see in New Zealand cricket, but I did and I’m disgusted”.

Peter Gardener of Orakei put it very strongly when he said, “We are not talking about some Sunday afternoon game on a village green. This is professional sport between two of the top six or so teams in the world who are judged mainly, and paid accordingly, on their results. The person entirely at fault was Muthiah Muralitharan, who broke the rules of the game by straying from the crease”.

Comment was forthcoming even from a patron in Perth, Australia. Steve Dunjey said: “No amount of pointing to the rule book can erase the knowledge that the Muralitharan run-out was an act of breath-taking cynicism from a team that does not normally stoop to this level. Shame on the wicketkeeper, the Captain and those who would dress it up as being ‘just part of the rules’”. He asked the question “Was it really worth winning like that?”

A pertinent question came from reader Dave McLean of Henderson “Will cricket’s governing body rule run–outs of this nature illegal, as they did in ruling underarm bowling illegal in response to the New Zealand – Australia incident”?