Lara a True Olympian

For the third time in four innings he was given out to a decision that was clearly wrong to everybody but the presiding umpire.

Slow motion replays would confirm that the decision was undeniably wrong. This was at a period when he was struggling for form and having a lean time due to a large extent to these decisions. It must have taxed his confidence and restraint.

When Brian Lara was given out by umpire Rudy Koertsen at 45, a decision that was glaringly wrong, even before the confirmation of the slow motion replays, just as he was beginning to look ominously like the Lara that has delighted the cricket world, he walked.

Like the true cricketer, West Indian cricketer he is, Lara walked with no indication that he was disappointed or that he thought the decision wrong.

What makes it even more painful was that he is under scrutiny, his confidence being whittled at by the Australian press with snide sniping at his performance and hinting that he is past it at age 36. In addition, Lara is undeniably the best batsman in the team and his early dismissal places a terrific burden on a bunch of players, many of whom seem to be out of their depth.

Ever since 1948, when the Australians had a really fabulous Test team, they had been notorious for their appealing. Men at cover point and square leg joined in concerted and aggressive appeals for lbw decisions, going down on their knees with hands upraised and howling like banshees for decisions that often would be ludicrous, except that this is such a serious business. Their attitude has always been that it is the umpire?s job to make the decisions and if he makes an error in their favour, so be it.

Remember Healy running out the young Lara in 1991 when he did not have the ball in his hand!! Steve Waugh made a brilliant fielding effort in the Test in Barbados in 1995, came up with the ball, hand upraised in triumph, claiming a catch and the umpire gave it. Waugh must have known that the ball had hit the ground first and slow motion replays show clearly that the catch was on the half-volley.

Compare that to Phil Simmons ?catching? Ranatunga and signalling that he had taken the ball on the half-volley when the umpire had given it.

Or even more remarkable, Rohan Kanhai edged d?Oliveira to Cowdrey who took a catch that was difficult to judge. He asked Cowdrey if he had taken it cleanly and walked when Cowdrey said he had.

Lara has followed a tradition of Olympian sportsmanship that has been the legacy of West Indies cricket and cricketers.

Cricket has been at various times regarded as the cleanest and most honourable sport, so much so that the phrase, ?it?s not cricket? was coined to indicate that something was not proper or honest.

The original West Indies players grew up in an age when those outmoded concepts, honour and fair play, were more important than winning at all cost or that good guys come second.

There were no more competitive players than Learie Constantine (later Lord Constantine), Jackie Grant, Jeff Stollmeyer, Frank Worrell, Clive Lloyd or Gary Sobers. Just as true, there were no more honourable players than those and they would not have tolerated any player indulging in what is now euphemistically called gamesmanship?a thin disguise for dishonest or unfair play.

West Indies has been famous for the generally accepted honesty and honourable conduct on and off the field.

Lately, after the emergence of the West Indies as the leading players in the game, a particular form of ?Gamesmanship? took root. Opponents at close positions would bombard batsmen with racist and abusive epithets and on many an occasion, the offended player would lose his cool and his wicket.

The disgusting habit has been labelled ?sledging.? In addition to bringing the game into disrepute, it has sparked several near punch-ups among players. On one occasion an Australian player towered over a diminutive West Indies batsman on the field, when the Aussie taunter got as good as he had given.

The best response to the Aussies taunting is surely Gus Logie?s. When the Kangaroos bombarded him with racist remarks, rather than getting hot, Gus merely looked at the taunter and smiled as he said, ?Thank you.? It soon stopped.

The proof of the high regard in which West Indies cricket and cricketers are held is seen in the spontaneous reception with which Lara?s innings was held and the greetings he got when he broke Allan Border?s record. It is only surpassed by the farewell given to Worrell?s team in 1961 series. More than half a million people lined the streets of Melbourne for a ticker tape parade in farewell to the team that played like champions and helped revive cricket as a spectator sport in Australia.

The unfortunate thing is that this lot seems not to have a clue about the history of West Indies cricket. They do not know the story of the rise of West Indies from being the learning pupils of the English to being the masters of the game.

They have accepted the benefits of the fore-runners, Headley, Cons, The W?s, Sobers, Lloyd and his teams as theirs as of right. In addition to coaches it may be advisable to have the West Indies players know more about the game in the region?what it has done and will continue to do, if the players are worthy of their inheritance.

In association with Trinidad Guardian.