Pak_Doo_Ik
Well-known member
The thing that got on my nerves about all their comments was even if they agreed with it at least try and give some stick to the Aussies for doing it because I’m fairly certain had it been the other way round the Aussie commentators would have stuck in to us for doing it even if they dug their own team out as well.To be honest, I'm not really surprised that a former professional cricketer doesn't really get the spirit of cricket thing. You could tell that on the chummy Sky Sports coverage on Sunday, with the public school quartet of Ian Ward, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain and Andrew Strauss all agreeing with each other that, because it was within the laws of the game, it was a perfectly fair dismissal, and trying to work out what all the plebs were complaining about.
The thing I don't understand about them is if, instead of being stumped, Bairstow had been the victim of a Mankad, I can guarantee that they would all having been going nuts about it, despite that also being within the laws of the game. The appear to view that as being the equivalent of spitting in someone's face, but everything else is fair game apparently.
My personal view (and not to deflect from the Aussies' responsibility here) is that the bowler's end umpire messed up massively here. It doesn't matter if he'd called over or not, there are six balls in an over and the ball becomes dead at some point after each of them, not just at the end of the over. As the umpire was looking and reaching for the bowler's cap when the incident happened, it's clear that he thought the ball was dead and that is his decision to make under the laws of the game. If he'd just stood his ground and called dead ball, we wouldn't all still be talking about this.
I’ve really not like Sky’s commentary this time around and I know sounds pathetic but they just aren’t pro England enough, at least on TMS they let the likes of McGrath and Maxwell talk about Australia but then take great delight every time England take a wicket or something goes against the Aussies,