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Ian Chappell
ADELAIDE, JAN 23: I have never known a game like the Sri Lanka-England clash at the Adelaide Oval. There was a chucking controversy, players arguing with an umpire, two major umpiring blunders, players shoulder-charging each other and another threatening a head butt and just for good measure, a faulty light bank that refused to work.
Then to cap off a drama-filled day, Sri Lanka completed a magnificent run chase, when the bowler who had been called for throwing earlier in the day hit the winning run from the third last ball of the final over, with the last pair at the wicket.
I had a feeling there could be trouble with umpires Ross Emerson and Tony McQuillan officiating in a Sri Lankan match that involved Muttiah Muralitharan. Both Emerson and McQuillan had called Muralitharan for throwing on a previous tour and they are umpires that players describe as the type ``who like to get into the game.''
I played under a few of those types myself, the most memorable being a character some South Australianplayers use to call ``one short'' Wilson because on most days, he would go through the full range of umpiring signals. I had not seen umpire John ``one short'' Wilson for thirty years until last night, when he poked his head out of a car as I was walking to my hotel and said, ``Hi.''
At the toss, Arjuna Ranatunga said he wasn't worried about Muralitharan bowling in front of umpires who had called him previously, because he'd been passed by an ICC throwing committee. Well, having seen ``one short'' Wilson the night before, I thought it was an omen and so it proved.
Muralitharan was called for throwing by square-leg umpire Emerson and that started a chain reaction of events that haven't been matched at the picturesque Adelaide Oval since the Bodyline Test when the crowd threatened to jump the fence.
Following the no-ball call, it seemed that Ranatunga, after a few minutes of finger-wagging, which the umpire returned in kind, had decided to take his team off the field. This was not a pretty sight in a yearwhere cricket has had its name dragged through the mud on a number of issues, none of which have been satisfactorily resolved by the ICC.
Having stated that I don't believe Muralitharan's action provides him with any unfair advantage, I also don't believe that a bowler who has a suspicious action should be allowed to reach the international arena before it is questioned. Surely there has to be a system in place where a young bowler is helped if he has a problem and if he can't find a solution, he is then told to pursue another career.
Then there is the matter of the fair delivery law and the definition of a throw. Both are less than clear-cut and leave the impression that if every umpire followed them to the letter of the law, then bowlers wouldn't be very penetrative and spectators would be subjected to a lot of boring batting exhibitions. The one delivery that Emerson felt transgressed didn't seem to be any different to any other off-break Muralitharan has delivered on this tour.
Eventually, ittranspired that Ranatunga was purely looking for guidance from the Sri Lankan officials on what course to follow with Muralitharan. In the end, it was decided to swap Muralitharan so that he was bowling at Emerson's end, but even that turned into another episode in the soap opera, as the trio argued over where the umpire was going to stand.
Despite the battle of wills that was raging between umpire Emerson and the Sri Lankans, Graeme Hick managed to keep his cool and hit a magnificent hundred. Neil Fairbrother aided Hick in boosting England's tally with a blistering finish that added more than fifty from the last three overs. The Sri Lankans seemed to be demoralised by events, but Sanath Jayasuriya revived them with a typical onslaught that brought him two sixes, one of which was shown to actually be a four by a television replay. Lankans had one piece of good fortune when umpire Emerson capped a forgettable performance by refusing to call for a replay that would have shown Jayawardene was run out. Then ina hectic finish, Roshan Mahanama bumped Darren Gough as he was trying to effect a run out. Alec Stewart then retaliated by shouldering Mahanama as he passed the batsman between overs and at this point the umpires had lost control.
The final irony came when Muralitharan blooped a full toss just out of reach of the cover fieldsman to give Sri Lanka a remarkable win. It had been an action packed day even for a game that many say, ``is the most controversial of them all.''
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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