Quotehanger

  • "I was not fast enough. But I was good at running. Some of my friends used to make fun that my run-up to the crease was faster than my deliveries."
    The world's fastest man, Usain Bolt, wanted to be a cricketer before he took up sprinting

    Sep 5, 2008

    • Recent Posts

    Try DVD rental for £3.99 per month!

    The headlines

    The news

    TWC


    Articles tagged as: michael-holding

    Life after Benaud

    By Ian last year, mid-June, 26 Comments »

    On Desert Island Discs, you are allowed one luxury. Given mine would be a magical television that showed all available live cricket (as well as choice re-runs), I’d be able to pick my favourite pundits to describe the action. Who are my top commentators? In theory, I would only need two to cover the matches, but that would be unfair on them (I’m not a tyrant), so I’d hire five to mix it up and give the others a rest.

    Richie Benaud in the comm box

    Therefore, below are my five favourite commentators. Benaud would have been there, of course, as would Brian Johnston, but we must all move on. There are honourable mentions for Lloyd, Gower, Holding, Dujon, Nasser, Knight, Ward, Smith, Lawry and Greig, but these five pick themselves.My Top Five: Michael Atherton, Jimmy Adams, Michael Slater, Geoff Boycott and Simon Hughes.

    I can’t imagine anyone will disagree, but then it’s your island. Pick who you like!

    26 Comments »



    Inzamam’s dismissal

    By Scott 2 years ago, mid-February, 21 Comments »

    The most curious thing about the first ODI between India and Pakistan was Inzamam’s dismissal, given out obstructing the field. It’s a very rare dismissal.

    If you didn’t see it, you can watch the video of it thanks to google video. He was given out under Law 37, Obstructing the field, which states:

    1. Out Obstructing the field
    Either batsman is out Obstructing the field if he wilfully obstructs or distracts the opposing side by word or action. It shall be regarded as obstruction if either batsman wilfully, and without the consent of the fielding side, strikes the ball with his bat or person, other than a hand not holding the bat, after the ball has touched a fielder. See 4 below.

    2. Accidental obstruction
    It is for either umpire to decide whether any obstruction or distraction is wilful or not. He shall consult the other umpire if he has any doubt.

    Now it seems to be a clear cut case to me. Michael Holding questioned the spirit of the appeal, but to my mind, I have no complaints. I think Inzamam was being a bit of a smartarse, and he paid the price.

    The other thing worth noting is that as cricket fans, we can now use tools like google video to replay and examine incidents like this. I think the future is bright for humanity in general. For cricket bloggers in particular, things are looking simply marvellous!

    21 Comments »