Dear WADA

Dear WADA,

I hear that you are peeved by the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) Anti-Doping Appeals Committee, which overturned the bans imposed on Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar for taking drugs, and have resorted to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport to deliver justice. The PCB Appeals Committee rejected the bans because they were, while in-line with international standards, not in accordance with the PCB’s out-of-date doping guidelines. PCB argues that WADA standards don’t apply since they conducted the doping tests internally.

I have an idea. How about you get ICC to test them when they show up for the next game? Don’t drugs stay in the system for months? And ICC certainly has the right to test any player. Then both of them could be subjected to the international laws.

With love,
Anonymous

Shameless

Everybody knows of New Zealand’s shameless run out of Muralitharan. Charlie Austin picked it as his worst moment of 2006. I won’t elaborate on that anymore. Here’s the video for those that did not see it.

My question is this: isn’t there a rule saying a batsman can only be run out when he’s attempting a run? If Murali clearly wasn’t attempting another run, shouldn’t he have been adjudged not out?

Gray areas

I wrote about ICC having to clarify the rules a couple of posts back. I’ve now created a new “Gray Areas” category where I’ll post of any weird situations that I can think of. I’ve thought of several in the past, but never wrote them down, so I can’t remember them all off the top of my head right now. Here’s one to start off though.

Say the batsman gets an inside edge and ball then goes to nestle between his knee and pad (this has happened surprisingly often). Can a fielder then reach in and claim a catch?