THE SPIRIT OF CRICKET

THE SPIRIT OF CRICKET 

Dennis Lillee for all his boorish behaviour would have fared rather badly with, say, hypothetical skipper Bradman. Foul-mouthing opponents (Gavaskar), physically fighting them (Lillee-Miandad case⁵), kicking at the stumps¹ (after dismissing Viv Richards in a provincial one-day match after bouncing him four times in succession), aluminum bat², all this and so much more certainly made the greatest fast bowler of all time a spectacle but like John Snow⁴ purposefully colliding with Gavaskar, would have landed Lillee in deep trouble with the Don of old school cricketing ethics, what in cricketing parlance is called 'the spirit of the game'. 

The 1981 Adelaide Test Match³ memory of Lillee/Aussie rude behaviour against Gavaskar and company rankles still. Lillee's general demeanour aided by the Chappell brothers allowing him undue latitude created on-field unpleasantness that has permanently in the minds of many tarnished his image. Rude boy Lillee will live in memory as a great fast bowler who did his country proud with his incredible cricketing achievements but shamed her with his uncricketing attributes as well for good and set in a dangerous precedent to check which the Rule Book had to be rewritten by the ICC. What a far cry from Bill Woodfull's impeccable ethical response to Jardine's and the MCC's 'unsportsmanlike' attitude in their bid to browbeat Bradman in the Bodyline Series! The Don in his interview⁶ 'Don Bradman: 87 not out' categorically denounced the use of what has been euphemistically called 'gamesmanship', what Steve Waugh notoriously called 'mental disintegration' tactics, and said that were he the captain of Australia when any player so transgressed, he would have warned him once and, should he have repeated the selfsame offense, would never have picked him again. 

That, gentlemen, is Sir Donald George Bradman speaking the final word on the disrepute to which the Lillees, the Chappells, the Steve Waughs and the Ricky Pontings, mentioning here by way of a larger representative illustration only a handful of significant Australian cricketers who he could as captain and administrator have hypothetically restrained the way the spirit of cricket deems it best for the game. And there's Lillee for you.

Written by Sugata Bose

3.https://youtu.be/hsqMTgqW4v0?si=pC3aaKfezwDMwYAZ

6.https://youtu.be/w9NRYOYiHIs?si=z00dK2PWi4Fdy-U8

4.https://youtu.be/zAtltGArRq4?si=kNAuZEhiwCWiSASU

5.https://youtu.be/UhG4mgcCuSM?si=UOYNoGkld-wWa3U_

5.https://youtu.be/FBNNrLxd4xM?si=8U6RbXl7_OHx7_Ee

1.https://youtu.be/QP1v2J2BKWA?si=RG8zym4AdQdHTKp0

2.https://youtu.be/8vyhJYCS8bE?si=_IvTgQ1xKBOWFdlD