Gilchrist Cleared by MCC "the Guardians of the Laws of Cricket"

Finally we have a verdict from the law makers.

"MCC’s Laws Sub-Committee has issued a statement in which it concludes that “the incident could not be classed either as contravening the Law or as breaching the Spirit of the Game.”

The debate gone all over the internet to office trains now has to come to an end. There were questionable grey areas in Gilly's act, so no one could possibly say Sri Lankans are "sore losers", for raising this issue. Now, that the "Guardians of the Laws of Cricket" saying that Adam Gilchrist haven't done anything wrong, we have to admit that.

"In this case (Adam Gilchrist in the ICC Cricket World Cup Final), apparently the addendum to the inside of the batting gloves was not for protection from injury, but to improve the way the batsman gripped the bat handle. This should not be considered unfair. Similarly, it has never been considered unfair for batsmen to use two grips on the bat handle."

Sri Lanka Cricket to question the legality of Gilly's "Hidden Ball" in next ICC Meeting

The longest ever cricket world cup took 47 days to conclude with a dramatic final between Australia and Sri Lanka, but yet it's not all over. Adam Gilchrist's "Squashed innings" which scored 149 off just 104 balls, while all the other Australian batsmen were struggling to score more than run a ball is now the hottest topic in the cricket world. This adds as yet another incident to the Australia's long history of "cheating in cricket", which includes the famous "under arm last ball" by Trevor Chapel, under the advice of then captain Greg Chapel, in an ODI against New Zealand.



So far, the legality of Gilly's innings was questioned by only the cricket fans and by few members of the blogging community. There's enough evidence to say that what Gilly did was illegal. A Squash ball cannot be a cricketing equipment, under any law either in Cricket law books or Squash law books. Australian cricket blogger JC, indirectly admitted that "a squash ball won the world cup for their country". All independent analysts (I mean, independent from Australia) agree that the facts raised by churumuri and some of the commenters in that thread, are un deniable. If you are an Australian, it would be hard to swallow most of the facts raised their. It's natural!

But what can a blogging community and fans do about this matter? Nothing but persuading the officials to take some action. I did the exact thing, by writing to some of the leading press and electronic media in Sri Lanka, to build a pressure on Sri Lanka Cricket, to bring this matter up. Then I realized I'm not alone! There were thousands of letters to editors, to some of the leading newspapers in Sri Lanka regarding this issue.

One such cricket fan write to The Island and says "Gilchrist has openly explained that it helped his grip and that means he has used an external substance other than those provided to enhance his batting. We are also perturbed at the Australians’ openly floundering the match rules and getting away. Sri Lanka feel robbed and rightfully so. You may feel that some of this grumbling is due to that"

Now the good news from cricket's point of view is, Australia is not going to get away this time. Sri Lanka Cricket's interim committee official, K. Mathivathan told The Island today that Sri Lanka Cricket will take this as a serious issue, and take the matter to net ICC meeting scheduled to June. He further added "It's unethical for Adam to do that, and laws could be brought to prevent doing such things in the future"

So, the cricket fans around the world now can be assured that Aussies will not be allow to just cheat like this and get away with it easily. But I personally, don't like the argument that the World Cup should be taken away from the Aussies, or the final should be played again. All in all Aussies have now won the world cup (even if it was by cheating), and now it's theirs for another 4 years. So let them posses it, break it or do what ever they want to do with it. What we want as cricket fans is justice. We want a clear statement from ICC that "It is illegal to use squash balls in cricket matches, and what Adam Gilchrist did was similar to what Ben Johnson did in 1988 Olympics"

Did Gilly Cheat? Can a Squash Ball be a permitted Cricketing Equipment under Law 3 (6) (c) (i) of Cricket?

CRICKET fans on the sub-continent have questioned Adam Gilchrist's match-winning innings in the World Cup final because he had a squash ball inside his batting glove.

I first came across with this question, on one of my blog posts about Gilly's batting glove signal. Then I saw, some one has raised the question on Yahoo Answers.

Most interesting and convincing analysis came from this post titled "How legal was Adam Gilchrist’s hidden ball?" (Of course the title is funny) Here the author refers to the laws of cricket and points..

"In other words, Law 3 (6) (c) (i) specifically prohibits a player from using equipment other than that permitted. And nowhere in cricket’s 42 laws is there a mention of a squash ball as a permitted item."

A very logical question raised by the Sri Lankan cricket fans is "What if Sanath Jayasuriya came with a squash ball hidden inside his glove and score a century? Will the Australian media and Cricket authorities keep silent?"

This question is very logical given the behavior of Australian media and the authorities, when it comes to matters like ball tampering charges against Sri Lanka on a ROCK hard pitch in Perth, and calling Murali for chucking.

I don't think even if Sanath came with a squash ball hidden inside his glove, he couldn't play such a brilliant innings as Gilly that day. There's no debate about the excellence in Gilly's innings. The only question is, whether it is legal to use Squash balls in cricket? How would you differentiate this from Hansi Cronje using a walky talky on the field? Why don't the law allows bowlers to use extra plasters to tighten their grip on ball?

So the topic is wide open. "Did Gilly Cheat? Was it legal to do that?" That's the question. No questioning about the brilliance in his innings. Have your say in the vote caster on the sidebar of this blog. We'll wait how the ICC and other authorities take on this matter.