Did the Commentators know?

I don’t want to harp on about the spot fixing issues for much longer for obvious depressing (for cricket) reasons, but one thing that came out in this last week that I found interesting was the amount of ex cricketers and commentators who claimed to be able to tell that something was going on from the sheer size of the no balls being bowled.

I mentioned it in my last post, the Sydney test match in 2010, the thing that sticks in my mind the most about this game was the tone of the Aussie commentators during the Australian second innings.

Thinking back now, I believe that they came as close as was legally and morally possible to saying that something dodgy was going on in that test match.

I can remember the commentators being staggered by what they were seeing, and in particular Ian Chappell’s incandescent rage towards Mohammad Yousuf’s captaincy, he said on more than one occasion that Yousuf’s tactics were those of a man trying to lose the test.

Looking back with hindsight, I now believe that Chappell was trying to say in a legal way that he felt the match was being thrown.

Equally when you hear the Sky Sports and TMS commentary of the no balls in question in the Lord’s spot fixing scandal, the words and the tones they were delivered in were telling, with one commentator even going as far as to say that you never see a no ball that far over the line these days, referring to one of Amir’s no balls.

Again with hindsight, I think they knew something wasn’t right.

Of that side that played in Sydney, only current captain Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Gul are playing in the current test against Sri Lanka. I’m not sure of the status of Umar Akmal who also played and I would have thought still has a test future, but it does make me wonder if a lot of the rest of that team have been ‘conveniently’ moved aside.

I would be interested to hear from Pakistan fans who know more than me about why a lot of that Sydney team (apart from the obvious ones) aren’t currently playing.