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From: baparao@uscvax.UUCP (Bapa Rao)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india,net.sport
Subject: Re: cricket
Message-ID: <10@uscvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Mar-86 21:49:45 EST
Article-I.D.: uscvax.10
Posted: Thu Mar 20 21:49:45 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Mar-86 22:18:08 EST
References: <130@ctnews.UUCP>
Reply-To: baparao@usc-cse.UUCP (Bapa Rao)
Organization: CS&CE Depts, U.S.C., Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 47
Keywords: bouncers, intimidatory bowling
Xref: watmath net.nlang.india:1186 net.sport:725

In article <130@ctnews.UUCP> reddy@ctnews.UUCP (T.S.Reddy) writes:
>
>While we are on the subject of intimidatory bowling and Marshall and
>Company's attempts to bounce the English team out of the game,
>I came across the following related article in the Mar 8th issue of
>The Economist. By the by, the contents page title of this article
>was "Head before wicket".
>
>Nasty, brutish and short 
>
> [etc.]

Hmmm. So the chickens have come home to Blighty to roost, have they?

As Reddy points out, intimidatory bowling as a matter of policy was
pioneered in the 1932-33 Australia tour (and the preceding tour of India) by
Douglas Jardine, then captain of the MCC. 

I used to follow cricket in the '60s and '70s (not any more, thankfully) and
recall that the Indian batsmen's inability to deal with the bouncers dealt
out by Messrs. Peter Lever and John Snow of the MCC used to be a source of
great amusement to British sportswriters and BBC commentators, who spoke of
the Indians frequently colliding with the square leg umpire in their attempt
to escape the fussilade. And now the big bad brutish (and yes, black) West
Indians are unfairly bouncing their lads around, and it is just not cricket,
is it old chap? Baloney.

The fact is that the West Indian pacemen, from as far back as I can remember
(which is from Wes Hall and Charles Griffith through to the sonorously named
Anderson Montgomery Everton Roberts), have been, simply outstanding at their
craft, and just awesome athletes. Same goes for their brilliant batsmen like
I.V.A. Richards. And the British media have always had a problem
acknowledging their greatness at the quintessential British game. With them
it was always "these flaky, calypso-singing sun-soaked (and I guess,
sun-tanned) islanders" (or some such). The English and the Aussies have bad
days; the Windies are basically temperamental and inconsistent. Phooey. As
far as the British media are concerned, the Windies are either childlike and
unreliable in temperament or brutish savages. I dare anyone to tell me they
are not racially motivated. 

Bouncers are an occupational hazard in test level cricket, and any batsman
worth his salt has no problem with taking them on. As long as unskilled
tail-enders are not threatened, there should be no reason to panic. The only
reason to consider "neutral" umpires should be to address concerns about
unfair out decisions and the like.  

						--Bapa Rao