test2wa

R Mohan

Shahid Afridi will go down in history as the cricketer who did the two daftest things in the era of the widely televised game. First, he scuffed the pitch in the full view of one of two dozen cameras on an international cricket field. And then he acted as if he were Eve eating the forbidden apple in paradise and expected to get away with it.
 
The candid cameras have a way of catching sharp practices. Once bitten, he should have been twice shy. Asian cricketers who are close to being paranoid that the lenses are there only to catch them ‘at it’ are supposed to be doubly careful if they are not yet fully reformed members of the old ball tampering brigade.
 
To do what he did, Afridi was either most foolish or terribly insolent. And then to talk about the whole world doing this tampering business anyway was a bit like Ponzi cheats saying in jail that the armed bank robbers are getting away with it all over the world.
 
Afiridi is no wide-eyed innocent caught up in a cruel man’s world. He hails from a lawless part of his country that is more often subject to the rule of the gun. The Pathan who has lost at least one cousin in battles on the frontier should have known better. While he begs the forgiveness of his nation, he also cheekily talks about the need to change the rules.
 
The other daft thing about the latest episode in cricket’s never ending soap opera is it triggers advice to the ICC to allow ball tampering because this is the era of the batsman in which the bowler is so disadvantaged that he has to cheat to cope. That’s a bit like saying pickpockets should be honoured with Padma awards.
 
Afridi is not alone in being caught by the camera. Many a distinguished cricketer has been pilloried on video evidence, including batting greats such as Rahul Dravid and Michael Atherton. For Afridi to claim some kind of exemption on supposed greatness at the game is too far fetched.
 
Sure, some do get away. Kepler Wessels was one who whacked Kapil Dev on the shins with his bat as he turned for a second run. This was in retaliation for the bowler Mankading Peter Kirsten. Those were early days in the saturated TV era. But the suspicion at the time was the tapes were censored by the cricket board.
 
Dr Ali Bacher brazened it out that the video of the incident was not available. It’s common knowledge that there are fixed pitch cameras taping all the time from on top of the sightscreens at both ends. In true Gandhian style, the Indians let it go in an emotional series involving a team that had just got back from the cold. It’s the fixed camera that may have caught Afridi’s cheeky apple bite.
 
Bowlers have to be clever on the subcontinent where the new ball loses its sheen rather more quickly and there is little in the conditions to enthuse men from the somewhat disadvantaged community in the game. But one believed the time of such abrasives as the sandpaper, the soda bottle top and the long fingernail to gouge out the leather and wear out the ball to allow reverse swing is long past us.
 
Cricketers are still famous for shooting themselves in the foot, which is exactly what Afridi has done, ironically when leading his team. ICC regulations have to be kept watertight, otherwise some sneaky player will always try to mock the game’s ethics. While the highest moral ground is no more the game’s preserve, it would still make sense to put men like Afridi on the carpet. The cricket world is rather tired of men like these who abuse their privileged position.