From: 9063iyerm@vms.csd.mu.edu (Murali Iyer)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.cricket
Subject: We need more people like Mr. Mark Maritz
Date: 11 Dec 1992 19:05:42 GMT
Organization: Marquette University - Computer Services
Reply-To: 9063iyerm@vms.csd.mu.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: vmsa.csd.mu.edu

In article <bamm.18.724078231@giraffe.ru.ac.za>, bamm@giraffe.ru.ac.za (MR MARK MARITZ) writes:
>
>Correction!!
>
>Kirsty was fined half of his apppearence fee ie R1000 (+- $2900) and Wessels 
>was let off with a reprimand.
>
>I think the Wessels Dev incident was an accident and it looks to me that it 
>was the harsh, spur of the moment language between Dev and Kirsty that lead 
>to the fining.  
>Ps: The great Graeme Pollock agrees with the run out and if you look 
>carefully you will note that Kirsty has his back to Dev as he comes in to 
>boul; a fatal error when batting!!!
>
>
>Dev seems to think that the incident is over and done with and I tend to 
>agree with him.

I am glad to see a sane, reasonable, cool (put all the nice adjectives here)
post like this about the "unsavoury" incidents in the second ODI. Things like
this happen occasionally and it is no use trying to find scapegoats. Like many
of the netters have pointed out, cricket is a game played hard like any other
professional sport. If one is ready to give a hard game, one should be ready to
take it too. I am not trying to paint either the RSA players or the Indian
players in any particular hue. It is the game in general I am talking about. I
guess whatever little cricket I have played, I have played it like that all
along. Give no leeway, expect none. 

Peter Kirsten has learnt his lesson, and Kapil Dev would have surely learnt
something from this, too. Ramesh Venkat had pointed out Srikkanth's dismissal
by Edmonds (or Emburey?) in the England-India test(Srikkanth's debut series). I
don't remember anyone getting mad or saying it was unsportsmanlike of Edmonds
to throw down the stumps when Srikkanth was not even attempting a run. Instead,
we were admiring the reflexes of the fielder and his presence of mind.
Srikkanth has never been caught unawares after that, as far as I can recall.

The difference here is that Kirsten has learnt it when he is in his late
thirties, whereas Srikkanth learnt it when he was still wet behind the ears.
I'd say, "Welcome to the World, Pete" to Kirsten(though it is pretty late, as I
said). :--)  The best thing to do is chill out, and play the game in its true
spirit, IMHO. And the true spirit is "play it naturally". No contrived acts
here. Kapil Dev is one natural player if there are any in this world. :--) 

Another thing some people have pointed out is that Kapil did not warn Kirsten
in the game before runing him out. As someone else pointed out, these ODI's are
played practically ack to back and players just tend to take it from where they
had left off. A couple of warnings should be enough to make any batsman alert.
If Kirsten was not alerted, it is not anybody else's mistake. The fact that
Azhar did not call him back indicates that the team management knew what Dev
intended to do if he caught Kirsten straying again. (Or that Azhar is too
scared of Kaps to antagonize him:--) ). 

>
>Cheers from the Sunny SA.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This was the reason I started to write this note. It feels good to see a sunny
chap. :--) For other RSA'ns, I am sure there will be many more unpalatable
incidents for which you guys may have to brace yourselves. The game has changed
a bit since 1970, I'd say. There are terrific players in the RSA team who can
more than make up for any unpleasant happenings, by virtue of their sheer
talent.

>Mark

-Murali



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