A pointless controversy

Adam Gilchrist and his now famous (or infamous) squash-ball-in-the-glove incident has more or less dominated the sports pages of the local media to the extent that it must be getting pretty close to drawing comparison with the World Cup cricket coverage.
Rather than accept the result of the final in true spirit Sri Lanka Cricket rather amateurishly put its foot in its mouth when its energetic secretary K. Mathivanan bombarded with calls from all over the world for his opinion on the Gilchrist incident blurted out that it was ‘unethical and not within the spirit of the game’ and that ICC should take it up for discussion at its next meeting.
Mathivanan forgot to mention to the world press that he was expressing his own personal opinion of the incident and not Sri Lanka Cricket’s. Instead his views were projected as that of Sri Lanka Cricket and opened a can of worms bringing forth a whole heap of criticism especially from Australia who always has an axe to grind with regard to Muttiah Muralitharan’s bowling action.
Sri Lanka Cricket could have avoided this rather unsavoury confrontation had they taken a collective decision on this matter and issued a statement instead of letting individuals express their own personal views. One hopes this incident will serve as an eye-opener to the SLC officials and they learn from their mistakes in dealing with sensitive issues such as the one they’ve just experienced.
In the eyes of the cricket world Sri Lanka were made to look as if they were poor losers and unsportsmanlike by this action. What was most funny about this whole incident was that it was not the Sri Lankan team nor the officials connected with the game who were rather concerned with the legality or illegality of Gilchrist’s glove but those outside it, a good many of them who were not familiar with the laws of the game or what it stands for. They even went to the extent of telling the ICC to disqualify Australia and make Sri Lanka the champions while another challenged the ICC that legal action would be taken if it was not done.
The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), cricket’s lawmakers who lay down the rules of the game put an end to the controversy by saying that Gilchrist had not violated any rules by using a squash ball in his glove.
The MCC statement read: “In this case, apparently the addendum to the inside of the batting gloves was not for protection from injury, but to improve the way the batsman gripped the bat handle.
“This should not be considered unfair. Similarly, it has never been considered unfair for batsmen to use two grips on the bat handle.
“The glove manufacturers might, for added protection against jarring, have put an extra pad of some cushioning material as an integral part of the inside of the palm.
“This would be entirely legal, but have the same effect on his grip for a batsman who wore such gloves.
“In conclusion, the incident could not be classed either as contravening the law or as breaching the spirit of the game.”
On the other hand it would be interesting to see how the cricket world would have reacted had a batsman from the subcontinent done a Gilchrist. Would opinions have been different?
Numero uno of selectors
The one-year term of the national selection committee ended on April 30 and everything points out to the same four selectors being reappointed for another year considering the fact that they had done a fairly good job with the selections barring of course the indecorous treatment handed out to a senior cricketer like Marvan Atapattu.
In the past year the selection committee has earned the wrath of the media not because of anything but due to the dictatorial attitude of its chairman Ashantha de Mel. He had been rude to one of the English Sunday papers when it contacted him to find out about Atapattu’s exclusion and his expression of opinion is not keeping with the norms of a selection committee head.
As a cricketer De Mel’s conduct was far from exemplary and he was the bad boy of Sri Lanka cricket during its infancy. He has been pulled up before disciplinary committees on several occasions and in one instance was even dropped from the national squad on disciplinary grounds. He was taken back only after he had tended an apology. Things are quite different now. Laden with political power he has become the numero uno of Sri Lanka cricket selection where no one dares question his choice of players, not even the national body. He went beyond the selection committee’s boundaries to have the team to Abu Dhabi released to the media overriding Sri Lanka Cricket whose responsibility it is to do so.