For any cricket fans

[Littlepeahead]

Last night at Lord's, Kumar Sangakkara delivered the 11th Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture.

Sangakkara received a standing ovation for his stirring, eloquent speech, which focussed on the history of cricket in his native Sri Lanka.


It touched upon issues including the 2009 terrorist attacks against the Sri Lanka team, governance of the game within the country and the passion with which is is followed by his people.


This was followed by a Q&A hosted by Mark Nicholas and a panel that featured Kumar, Andrew Strauss, Clare Connor and Michael Holding.

If you'd like to hear it then log on to:

http://mcc.sportslinemedia.co.uk/cowdrey-lecture.html

It is well worth a listen.

I finally got round to listening to this, after catching a few minutes of it during the tea interval of the first test against India last week. Excellent excellent speech.

And LPH I am sure you're very happy with the game at the moment, not just from an England perspective but from a sporting perspective in general. Summed up by Chris Evans on Radio 2 this morning... sports guy reports on the reversal of Bells dismissal, the spirit of the game in good health etc etc and ends his report by announcing Arsenals fans booed their players off the pitch yesterday after a FRIENDLY!!

It was a great decision by Dravid to reverse the decision, it was a big win for cricket.

[MisterTommyH]

Originally Posted by Electro

It was a great decision by Dravid to reverse the decision, it was a big win for cricket.

But only after a Visit from Andrew Strauss to ask if he was certain he wanted to carry on with it.

Have to say I'm not liking the Indians attitude to the whole series so far.

- Ruling out the review system (which seems to me like they think they can get an advantage without it).
- Making excuses for losing the first test rather than simply accepting they were beaten.
- Even though Dravid reversed the decision yesterday, the fact that they took the wicket in the first place shows their unsportsman like attitude towards the game. A 'great' captain should not have to be prompted to be a sportsman.

It wasnt Dravid who reversed the decision, it was MS Dhoni. As the captain he is the only one allowed to reverse a decision

India were all in the process of talking about reversing the decision when Strauss asked them, so I think you are being extremely unfair Tommy. Credit where it's due.

It is good to see some sportmanship left in some sports. Can you ever see a footballer saying i knocked that ball into the goal using my hand, and the decision needs to be reversed.....not likely.

And on the upside, this test has taken a serious turn for the good, at one stage in the first innings we were looking in dire trouble, broad saved us then. Interesting that they were gonna drop him before this series....similar to cook performing in australia after having a terrible summer here beforehand.

Originally Posted by Vergey

It is good to see some sportmanship left in some sports. Can you ever see a footballer saying i knocked that ball into the goal using my hand, and the decision needs to be reversed.....not likely.

A few football ones come to mind.
Di Canio vs Everton; he caught the ball in mid air whilst the opposing keeper was injured. Robbie Fowler missed a penalty on purpose, as he didnt think it should be given. Leicster vs Notts Forest the cup replay aswell

[Littlepeahead]

In some ways it is good that Law 42 part 19 came into play - that being the unwritten law of common sense. By the laws, Bell was out. He should really have stayed out. And there is some debate as to whether is was even possible to reintstate him after he'd left the field of play. On the other hand, you can see how he thought it was tea, but it isn't tea unless the umpire says so - even if Swanny is sat on the balcony eating a cheese sandwich.

Dravid sits on our World Cricket Committee whose job it is to promote the Spirit of Cricket campaign, so I am not surprised that when the team said it didn't feel right to call Bell out that he led the charge to reinstate him. Should Flower and Strauss have asked for it to be reconsidered? I'm not sure. Flower is a tough man, though fair. I'd be interested to hear what he'd have done if the situation had been reversed. I will ask him when I talk to him later this week.

But anything that makes people see cricket as a better sport than football when it comes to fair play is a good thing. What we have to be wary of is kids playing the game without the benefit of Hot Spot, Hawk Eye, etc. and then showing the Umpires no respect because all they see on TV is the LBW decision from so many different angles it becomes hard for them to take the Umpires decision as final.

Another interesting interview about the DRS was with Clive Lloyd by Mihir Bose which you can read here:

http://www.mihirbose.com/index.php/c...ystem-is-fair/

[MisterTommyH]

Originally Posted by Littlepeahead

Dravid sits on our World Cricket Committee whose job it is to promote the Spirit of Cricket campaign, so I am not surprised that when the team said it didn't feel right to call Bell out that he led the charge to reinstate him. Should Flower and Strauss have asked for it to be reconsidered? I'm not sure. Flower is a tough man, though fair. I'd be interested to hear what he'd have done if the situation had been reversed. I will ask him when I talk to him later this week.

I don't agree with a lot of what Mr Boycott says, but he's right in saying that if England had got Tendulka out like that in India they wouldn't have got off the pitch, let alone out of the stadium. And there'd have been rioting in the street.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by brennan

A few football ones come to mind.
Di Canio vs Everton; he caught the ball in mid air whilst the opposing keeper was injured. Robbie Fowler missed a penalty on purpose, as he didnt think it should be given. Leicster vs Notts Forest the cup replay aswell

"That year, he also won a UEFA Fair Play award for admitting that he had not been fouled by Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman at Highbury after a penalty had been given.[18] After unsuccessfully trying to convince the referee to change his decision about the penalty, Fowler took it tamely and Seaman saved. However, Seaman failed to hold on to the ball and Jason McAteer scored from the rebound.[19] Though many people believe that he deliberately took the penalty kick poorly for reasons of fair play, Fowler said at the time: "As a goalscorer it's part of my job to take it and I wanted to score it. I tried to score. I never missed on purpose. It just happened, it was a bad penalty."[20]"

Sorry - bit bored!