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‘Gentlemanly’ conduct?

By Rich Abbott last year, at the end of November Add your comment below

Simon Hughes’s excellent book, And God Created Cricket, recently alerted me to a custom that existed in the game before being banished by the first incarnation of the laws in 1744. Namely, that the striker would be penalised if “he runs out of his Ground to hinder a Catch”.

Apparently, before this was officially clarified, it was not uncommon for a batsman to, in Hughes’s words, “literally assault a fielder as he was attempting to take the ball”. This conjours up images of an intruiging cricket-rugby fusion, as well as making jellybean disputes and that strange sideways point adopted briefly by Stuart Broad against South Africa in the World T20, look decidedly lame as distraction techniques in comparison.

The book is full of such gems, and is a must for any self-respecting Christmas list. And, if the ICC are looking for ways to jazz up World Cup 2011, (all 43 days of it), then the image of Jesse Ryder bearing down on a terrified silly point fielder does have a certain appeal…

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2 Responses to “‘Gentlemanly’ conduct?”

  • Howzat.com wrote:
    November 24th, 2009 at 9.04 am

    Hilarious. I’d pay to watch Andrew Symonds tearing after Harbhajan Singh or Sreesanth.

    Or Monty running behind a poor little sod at short cover (Talk about irony anyone?)

    I’m curious though, how did the batsmen have the time to run after the fielder after the ball was hit?

  • Rich Abbott wrote:
    November 26th, 2009 at 5.30 pm

    I wondered that too – speaks volumes for the fitness of the batsmen. Assume it applied to the close fielders, and that a certain amount of tussle ensued once the ball was safely pouched. I think that confusion reigned, even then, hence the rule being brought in.

    Still think the ICC should consider it…

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