Spirit of Cricket

All of us have played sports at some point in our life. Most of us have enjoyed it when we were kids and some took it as a career. As kids we have been accustomed to playing sports with respect for our opposition and refrain from cheating. Those were nothing but lessons in playing sports with game spirit.

These days with the advent of superior technology and fanfare around sports, we usually hear the term sportsman spirit a lot. With the cut throat competition in professional sports, players not always show this spirit and look to excel at any cost.

A particular sport is specially in news for sportsman spirit. It is cricket, also called a gentleman game. A game in which there are no rules but laws and the topic most of us discuss is the spirit of Cricket. So, what is this spirit of Cricket? and how we end up debating it almost every time there is a controversy.

 

What is the spirit of Cricket?

Spirit of Cricket is basically an unspoken understanding within the players and the teams around the game and its laws. It is keeping the game and respect for it above its laws. An unspoken understanding that not everything has to be legal to be correct, not everything that is right is legal.

Since cricket is a gentleman's game, players and teams over the years have developed some unspoken understanding within themselves that they would not resort to legalities around the rules of the game and would rise above the law to play cricket with the spirit of Cricket.

The recent incidence in the second leg of the IPL2021, in the game between KKR and DC involving Ravichandran Ashwin and Eoin Morgan has again heated the debate around spirit of Cricket.

 

What happened between Ravichandran Ashwin and Eoin Morgan in the KKR vs DC game in IPL?

We saw heated exchange of words between players of KKR and DC in the IPL match in Sharjah. It was a day game in soaring heat. During the game in DC's innings while DC's captain Rishabh Pant and Ravichandran Ashwin were batting on the crease, they ran an extra run of an overthrow that was deflected of the batsman. The unspoken spirit of cricket rule being that batsmen shouldn't run if the ball deflected of their body or bat while taking a run. Since DC player Ravichandran Ashwin was the one who called for the run, KKR bowler Tim Southee upon Ashwin's dismissal reminded him of the incidence leading to a heated exchange of words after which KKR captain Eoin Morgan joined in as well. Thankfully the umpires and KKR wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik were able to diffuse the tension and asked Ashwin to go back to the pavilion.

The incidence is also interesting because it involves Ashwin who has been in news because of the Mankading incidence involving RR batsman Jos Buttler. Mankading is the process of getting the non-striker run out by the bowler, if the non-striker is leaving the popping crease while the bowler is in his delivery stride. Mankading is also not considered to be within the spirit of cricket and that incidence had the whole cricketing world in splits.

Ashwin later sent out a series of tweets clarifying his position on the whole incidence. He clearly mentioned that for him the laws of the game are the only spirit that he follows. If it is legal within the rules, he will do it.