Neil Pickup
Cricket Web Moderator
Hot off the press today - here, and an interesting read: the following extract in particular (with my comments in red).
• Appealing when the batsman is clearly not out.
• All this does is result in umpires not giving you borderline decisions when it comes to it. It's not sharp practice, or advantageous, it's just really bloody silly and no manager or coach with more than three brain cells will encourage it.
• Shouts of 'come on, let's make some noise'.
• Could someone please explain to me how this is unsporting?
• Coaching from the boundary, including making regular changes of fielders’ positions.
• A permanent cloud that will always hang over youth cricket when the borderline between development and victory becomes blurred. Personally I don't see how this is desperately different to England players wandering off for a toilet break between overs to talk with Andy Flower. How criminal is it to support inexperienced players in pressure situations?
• Adults, presumably parents, coming onto the field of play to ‘get their message’ across.
• Now we find the indefensible where the line between competition and living vicariously through children, and I can't see how this can be tolerated by management or then by officials, who must take some blame here for permitting it on their pitch.
• Swearing at opponents.
• Not even going to try to defend it.
• Seeking to distract opponents verbally or by harassment with persistent clapping or unnecessary noise under the guise of enthusiasm.
• This is one area where I'm always going to come into argument with others. As far as I am concerned, any noise, so long as it is not during the bowler's run up, and is not personal/abusive, is part of the game. The whole sport is based heavily on psychological strength and weakness, regardless: words are just a small part of it.
A case in point in one school match this season occurred when one of the opposition's opening bats hit the ball virtually to the midwicket boundary, yet no run was taken. One of our fielders, aware that this was clearly because the non-striker did not fancy facing the quick bowler currently operating, said "doesn't look like they're running today, boys". I did not, and still do not, see anything wrong with it, yet the other side's umpire took great exception to it. Intriguingly, this only provoked his own team to collapse in a huge heap...
Where is the line?
• Appealing when the batsman is clearly not out.
• All this does is result in umpires not giving you borderline decisions when it comes to it. It's not sharp practice, or advantageous, it's just really bloody silly and no manager or coach with more than three brain cells will encourage it.
• Shouts of 'come on, let's make some noise'.
• Could someone please explain to me how this is unsporting?
• Coaching from the boundary, including making regular changes of fielders’ positions.
• A permanent cloud that will always hang over youth cricket when the borderline between development and victory becomes blurred. Personally I don't see how this is desperately different to England players wandering off for a toilet break between overs to talk with Andy Flower. How criminal is it to support inexperienced players in pressure situations?
• Adults, presumably parents, coming onto the field of play to ‘get their message’ across.
• Now we find the indefensible where the line between competition and living vicariously through children, and I can't see how this can be tolerated by management or then by officials, who must take some blame here for permitting it on their pitch.
• Swearing at opponents.
• Not even going to try to defend it.
• Seeking to distract opponents verbally or by harassment with persistent clapping or unnecessary noise under the guise of enthusiasm.
• This is one area where I'm always going to come into argument with others. As far as I am concerned, any noise, so long as it is not during the bowler's run up, and is not personal/abusive, is part of the game. The whole sport is based heavily on psychological strength and weakness, regardless: words are just a small part of it.
A case in point in one school match this season occurred when one of the opposition's opening bats hit the ball virtually to the midwicket boundary, yet no run was taken. One of our fielders, aware that this was clearly because the non-striker did not fancy facing the quick bowler currently operating, said "doesn't look like they're running today, boys". I did not, and still do not, see anything wrong with it, yet the other side's umpire took great exception to it. Intriguingly, this only provoked his own team to collapse in a huge heap...
Where is the line?