MUMBAI, DEC 7: Remember the infamous eyeball-to-eyeball, finger-wagging confrontation between England captain Mike Gatting and umpire Shakoor Rana? That on-field flare-up in 1987-88 occurred when Rana warned Gatting about fielders changing their positions surreptitiously when the Pakistan batsmen were concentrating on the run-up of the bowlers.

A similar ploy by the Indians plotted the downfall of Sri Lanka batsman Aravinda de Silva in the third and final Test which ended in an absorbing stalemate at the Wankhede Stadium today. The Indians lured Aravinda into his favourite pull stroke in the belief that the stretch between deep square-leg and deep midwicket was unmanned. But Rajesh Chauhan did a Carl Lewis to get into deep square-leg even as Srinath was running in to bowl that short, rising bait.

Aravinda was numbed to find Chauhan take the catch at deep mid wicket. His immediate reaction was to admonish non-striker Roshan Mahanama for not bringing to his notice the alterations behind his back. Sri Lankan coach Bruce Yardley left his seat in the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) managing committee box to voice his protest to International Cricket Council match referee Bob Simpson. But there was nothing much the referee could do.Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar pointed out that Rahul Dravid lost out on a century in the Nagpur Test when the Lankans moved Maravan Atapattu in a similar fashion. So, the Lankans can't complain now.

Would that constitute sharp practice ? Maybe. But the laws are silent on issue and thus the Indians could not be blamed.

Law 42 has two clauses which is relevant.

Clause 1. Responsibilities of captains: ``The captains are responsible at all times that play is conducted with the spirit of the game as well as within the laws.''

Clause 2. Intervention by the umpires: ``The umpires shall intervene without appeal by calling and signalling `dead ball' in the case of unfair play, but should not otherwise interfere with the progress of the game, except as required to do so by the laws.''

The ``spirit of the game'' and ``unfair play'' may vary from person to person and unless they are clearly specified, players are bound to take advantage when it suits them.

The under-arm rule was re-written after the Trevor Chappell incident. The under-arm doesn't stink anymore. Maybe, it's time the administrators of the game look into such ambiguously-worded laws.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.