Waqar Younis with his bottlecap reverse swing tactics should be the last person talking about the spirit of the game.
And in this incident he mentioned why should have Langer walked? It was not his fault that the umpire of that match missed the nick. And such incidents were very common back in the day - a reason why neutral umpires & DRS were later on introduced in the game.
The other day Warner walked without nicking the ball & Kohli did the same in the ODI WC, did the fielding team call him back? Also Batsmen get out by freakest of reasons - hit wicket, handling the ball, ball ricocheting off non-striker batsmen etc & the fielding team happily accept those wickets. Are these incidents fair?
Leg before appeals are made all the time by the bowling team when its blatantly obvious even to the bowler that the ball is not pitched in line/missing the stump. Are these appeals fair & in the right spirit of the game?
And not to mention Mankading. I have never understood why it generates so much controversy when it is actually the fault of the non-striker taking off even before the ball has been released by the bowler.
So many instances where this ‘spirit of the game’ is ambiguous & outright hypocritical. Things should never be let open for interpretation- if the cricket law makers think something is not in the spirit, they should simply codify it.
