Not really, because at the time, the difference in a few minutes is unlikely to make a difference. If they've already been out for twelve hours making 399*, denying the batsman an extra two minutes to get his world record is petty, vindictive and is just asking for a fractured locker room.
Wouldn't justify a player not speaking to the captain though.
It would justify the player running up the stairs and getting into a first fight, to be honest.
Its not about waiting for a player who is on 40* to get a century. We aren't talking about that. Waiting a few minutes here and there for a personal milestone improves the morale of the whole team, more-so than if you've got pissed off players because you suck as a man-manager.
I think most captains (assuming they aren't at the crease) would send out the 12th man with some gloves or A. N. Other suitable pretext to the bloke on the verge of his milestone and tell him he's got X balls/overs before time is called.
Agree thats probably the best way to go about it.
Yup, thats a perfectly fine way of handling it.
Atherton had some element of mitigating circumstances; he'd been accused - by the Ian Chappell brigade, naturally
- of negative thinking in the previous Test. He was, hence, determined to give-off a let's-try-for-the-win mentality. He realised, not very long after, that this was a mistake, as he realised 4 years later that he was mistaken to get sucked-in by perceived "Australianisms" when he played barely half-fit through most of The Ashes 1998\99. That series more than any other has tainted his legacy and it's such a shame it happened.Imran Khan once created a huge furore in Pakistan by declaring in a match against India in 1983 when Javed Miandad was unbeaten on 280. Would you consider that wrong?
But mad to think he ever had a chance of winning the game on that pitch.
Terrible declaration, should have batted on and aimed for the 800-mark.
Interesting, had never heard of that before.
Imran was a bit obsessive in his belief that every effort should be for victory and not personal glory/records. Also, Miandad was still 85 runs away from Gary Sobers' record, but I can understand why Miandad would be miffed.
With Javed it wasn't so much man-management as keeping a potential rival in his place.
It will seem strange having to speak English all the time again. I spent two weeks there and when I got to the UK it took me a day or two to get my brain thinking in English. Simple things like say 'thank you' rather then 'merci'.Haha, that's impressive. I thought I had a good mind for stats. Well, I do have a good mind for random info, but lately I've been forgetting a lot of it. Haven't watched cricket in so long I probably forget the rules these days, same goes for footy with the exception of the odd France match here and there.
Roll on the 19th Dec - back to England for two weeks.
Interestingly, a few commentators actually did praise Cronje for his actions at the time as he (with Nasser's unwitting collusion) had breathed life into an otherwise inevitable draw, but the fact that he did it at the bookmakers'/match-fixers' behest means that it was absolutely ****ing awful for the game. One of the main tenents of sport is that all competitors are legitimately trying to win.
Yeah, can imagine. I'm looking forward to people in the street actually trying to avoid me, instead of just walking into me and then following it up with "Pardon". I'm also looking forward to beer that comes in pints, seeing my friends, watching some football, watching some cricket...man, I'd need my own thread to tell you all the things I'm looking forward to about coming home, even for two weeks!
Perhaps, then, it'd be most accurate to say that any such declaration where the idea was that of someone other than a gambler would have been a good one.
It's an interesting viewpoint. Captains have colluded in the county championship since it began to set agreed targets to give the possibility of a result, but before that tour it was unheard of in tests. I remember being stunned rigid that we'd won, having left for work (& having no internet access at work back then) with the 5th day about to begin and SA's 1st innings still in progress. When I flicked on teletext (this was the dark ages) to read the details I was surprised, but didn't suspect anything amiss at all. Cronje was seen at the time as a paragon of Calvinist rectitude, so the idea that he'd "fix" a match was laughable.
