Angelo Mathews gets his reward

With the Australian cricketing kangaroos hopping in here for Two Twenty, Five 50-over one-day internationals and a Three Test series, the good news for Sri Lanka is the appointment of Angelo Mathews as vice captain for the first two Twenty20 games.

Mathews, from the time he earned his spurs in the big league, has been performing consistently as an all rounder. His appointment at this time is a just reward for his consistency with both bat and ball as well as for the maturity, the daring and the dependability that he demonstrates.

All rounders don’t come that easy. A good all rounder performing consistently is rare. When one comes along performing consistently he must be given all the motivation and support to attain even greater heights.

Bright future

Mathews has a bright future and he must make it his goal to emulate not only the great all rounders that Sri Lanka has produced, but also the great all rounders that the cricket world has produced. He is a hard hitting right hander, a talented mover of the ball both ways and a safe fielder.

His only drawback is that he tends to suffer some injury or the other that at times threatens his career. He must watch it.

The selectors must be commended for appointing Mathews vice captain. In doing so they have placed faith in him and a promise that augurs well for the leadership of our team’s going forward. Its not idle speculation that one day Mathews could well be the Captain after of course Tillekeratne Dilshan bows out over time.

Reverse stroke

The reverse stroke or the switch hit, that is being played even in the highest form of the game - Test cricket - came in for discussion during the first day of the Second Test between England and India at the Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

Now this stroke, where a right hand batsman suddenly changes his stance to that of a left hander and vice versa and hits a ball came into being initially in the 50 over game.

The 50 over game came into being because Test cricket was beginning to be a bore, shorn of enterprise and excitement.

It was common to see most Test matches ending in stalemates even after five days of play. No surprise that all important spectators preferred to skip Test cricket!

Innovative

One of the outcomes of the 50 over game was the birth of the innovative if not weired strokes being played to obtain runs at the expense of traditional style..

During the England innings in the Second Test in Nottingham, batsman, Greame Swann attempted to play the reverse stroke. Harsha Bogale who was doing TV commentary at that time posed the question as to why bowlers should not be allowed to switch from right to left hand and deliver without having to inform the umpire like the batsmen are doing.

When a batsman plays the reverse stroke it is not fair by the bowler and the fielding side. A bowler sets the field because the batsman is right handed.

The batsman suddenly switches and plays a left handed stroke. So arguably, this is unfair and can be unacceptable.

Sauce for the goose

Writing in this column some time back, I asked why not allow the bowler who is bowling over the wicket to switch and bowl round the wicket without informing the umpire and the batsman. Surely, what is sauce for the goose must be sauce for the gander! It is nauseating and ugly to watch a batsman, be he right or left handed, play the reverse or the switch stroke, especially in the sacred game - Test cricket.

It is not too late even now for the International Cricket Council to call a halt to this reverse or switch and ban it, especially in Test cricket. Test cricket is the holy of holies and it must be kept clean and played that way. We hope the ICC will act.

The umpiring, at the time of writing in the Two Tests between England and India to say the least has been ordinary at times. Both teams have suffered. Had the Umpires Decision Referral System, including the LBW rule been in play, the teams would have had no reason to fret and complain and feel undone.

Poor decisions

Forgetting the poor decisions in the First Test at Lords where England strolled to victory by 196 runs, in the Second Test England opener Alastair Cook became the sacrificial lamb when the umpire gave him out LBW to a delivery that was going well over the stumps.

That would have been heart breaking to the batsman. The commentator at that time said that Cook had failed again. How can it be said the batsman failed again when to everyone it was apparent that he was undone by poor judgment of the umpire.

While congratulating England all rounder Stuart Broad for taking a hat-trick in the Indian first innings in the Second Test, his second victim on his way to the hat-trick Harbhajan Singh was unfortunate to be ruled out LBW when the TV replays showed that he had got a thick edge, before the ball thudded on to his pads.

That was a good lesson to the Indians who seem to be calling the shots in every form of the game. Had the LBW rule in the UDRS been in play Singh would have survived and Broad would have not had a hat-trick. We hope the Indians will learn and the ICC will have the guts to tell them to play to the rules.