Question

describe an incident where someone acted against the spiritof game what lesson did you learn from it

Answer 1

Though winning matches are important for a team, the players realize it is more important to winning the hearts. Even if the rules legalize certain types of dismissals in cricket, the cricketers are ready to overlook them keeping spirit of the game utmost in their minds. In one of the group matches of the Commonwealth Bank Series in Australia involving India and Sri Lanka earlier this year, Ravichandran Ashwin mankaded the non striking Sri Lankan, Lahiru Thirimanne for backing up too much from the bowler’s crease even before the ball was bowled. This type of run out, which was named after former Indian cricketer, Vinoo Mankad who was the first one to have ever attempted it, is perfectly legal as per cricketing laws.

We have seen Kapil Dev dismissing Peter Kirsten in South Africa in this fashion in 90s. But what transpired then was a friction between South African cricketer Kepler Wessels and all the Indian cricketers for the behaviour of the former, who was reported to have hit Kapil Dev’s knee with the bat, thereby burying the spirit of the game. In Thirimanne’s case though, the spirit was upheld as the stand in captain of India, Virender Sehwag, when he was consulted by the on field umpires – Paul Reiffel and Billy Bowden, agreed to withdraw the appeal and let the batsman stay at the wicket. This averted the cold war which would have otherwise been spurred between the two teams, had the captain gone ahead with the appeal.

Answer 2

Spirit of game is whereby one uses the sportsmanship spirit ultimately to have a fair play on the players. During the play competition is usually encouraged but not usually at the cost of mutual respect. One has to follow the rules and regulation that have been set for the play. CMM