With so much preparation going into an international match specially when its a decider in a smallish tournament like the World T20, rain Gods playing spoilt sport can be very very hurting. To top it when You have something as complicated, unreasonable and dated a method as the Duckworth Lewis System to depend on, it is more so. The England Captain Paul Collingwood is within his rights to feel frustrated to be on the losing side after his side scored a mammoth 191/5 in their stipulated 20 overs. And as a true cricket fan so am I. I do not see this Windies side to have even challenged that score let alone topple it. Hence my commiserations to the English side who by the way are the engineers behind throwing India out of contention in the last edition of the T20 WC.
There are talks going on to tweak the rule books for the shortest version of the game. My opinion is to have it changed for all the 3 formats. My stance on this has been true since that fateful night down under some 18 years ago when South Africa were cruising towards a berth in the finals of the Benson & Hedges World Cup in Sydney with their first international fixture after all the hatred they were subjected to through apartheid. What would have happened if they would have won the match instead of bearing the big scoreboard crying out loud “South Africa to win need 22 runs in 1 ball” (refer to pic) is for me one of the biggest tragedies of Cricket not only the World Cup. Specially the way the English side got ripped through by the then great Pakistanis led by Imran Khan and emrgeing superstar Wasim Akram. It was only very recently while watching one of my fave Director Clint Eastwood’s last “Invictus” that some of those images came back to mind. I was all of 10 years at the time but the seeds of interest for the spot was sown long back. The 92 Cricket World Cup was much before the rugby triumph. Who knows Mandela may have sent his “Invictus” to Kepler Wessells before the final night. And how I wish Hollywood and Eastwood would have paid a homage to “cricket” instead of “rugby”. Well for now its a dream.
As for the sport, my earnest request to the boards of top cricketing nations BCCI, ACB and ECB, please sit together and urge the ICC to revise this D/L method. Until then it’s time, all us fans of the game to stand up and cry “FOUL”.