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Martin Crowe bitching


kabira

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Re: Martin Crowe bitching SLC prepares itself for ICC inquiry Crowe calls for Murali action review Cricinfo staff December 21, 2006 Muttiah Muralitharan: under yet another cloud of doubt ? Getty Images Martin Crowe, the former New Zealand captain, has called for the ICC to review Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action, specifically the doosra - the delivery that leaves the right-handed batsman. Crowe suggested that Muralitharan needed to be monitored more often to ensure his arm was not flexing more than permitted. According to Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan board (SLC) has prepared a full-bodied defence should the ICC hold an inquiry into the matter. During Sri Lanka's recent 217-run Test win at Wellington, Crowe, currently a television commentator, claimed Murali's action deteriorated during a matchwinning spell on day four and needed to be reassessed. Following the match, Crowe sent an e-mail detailing his concerns to the ICC. It was reported that he planned to include video footage. "I have no worries over his offspinner whatsoever," Crowe told The Dominion Post, a New Zealand daily. "It's the doosra which he now bowls more and more, often up to 50% in a given spell, which needs further clarification. His doosra was banned two years ago and I believe it needs consistent monitoring." Jayawardene came to Muralitharan's defence. "It's quite sad it's gone this far. From a cricket point of view this is something that has to stop," he said. "It's a ridiculous situation. Murali shouldn't be penalised every time he takes 10 wickets.They [the SLC] will do a presentation to the ICC as well. If he [Crowe] wants to take it higher up ... depending on the outcome we will also react." Jayawardene added that Muralitharan would remain impervious to the latest round of crititicism: "He's fine, he has no problems and is just concentrating on cricket". John Reid, the former New Zealand captain who stood on the ICC illegal delivery panel that cleared Muralitharan six years ago, disagreed with his compatriot. "He [Crowe] won't believe these so-called experts who are the ICC illegal delivery panel. Murali's also been passed by the biomechanists," Reid said. "Everyone thinks he has a bent elbow. He hasn't, he can't straighten his elbow. He's got a double-jointed wrist like you wouldn't believe."

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Re: Martin Crowe bitching Martin Crowe likes to be in news that is all. Every summer he puts up a drama really. Couple of years ago he commented on Maori population in NZ and said they didn't have the intelligence enough to play cricket Everyone knows his spat with Ganguly in 2003. Now it is Murali, all he wants is some limelight. I think he is struggling to come to terms he is not given the attention he used to get once upon a time. Crowe has a long rooted hatred for Murali, read the following article and you will see why : http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mike_marqusee/2006/07/disspirit_of_cricket.html

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Re: Martin Crowe bitching Let me cut and paste from that article the relevant parts, it is a fantastic read We come back to Crowe's speech, where he declared his "zero tolerance" for "chucking" (failing to bowl the ball with a straight arm) and singled out Muralitharan as the prime culprit: "If with the naked eye a bowler is clearly chucking - even by one degree - he should be chucked out. ... Having been dubiously bowled first ball in a test by a certain Sri Lankan bowler ... I've had more than enough of this aspect of the game." If this is the Spirit of Cricket, it seems extraordinarily mean-spirited. Murali has willingly subjected himself to more tests and examinations than any bowler in history. These have shown to all but the determinedly prejudiced that he is not a chucker. Judged by the standards of the preamble, Crowe is showing dissent: he refuses to accept the decision of the designated authority as final. He also refuses to acknowledge that the evidence of the naked eye is problematic. (Welcome, Martin, to the 19th century!). Unusually, the ICC felt compelled to reply to Crowe's lecture, noting that the new law permitting a 15-degree flex had been introduced in response to scientific research: "Some bowlers, even those never suspected of having flawed actions, were found likely to be straightening their arms by 11 or 12 degrees. And at the same time, some bowlers that may appear to be throwing may be hyper-extending, or bowl with permanently bent elbows" (Murali falls into the latter category). The ICC may not have come up with the right answer to the chucking dilemma but they were asking necessary questions; all Crowe can do is stomp his feet and repeat, in defiance of the evidence, that it's all quite obvious. It's not. Crowe's complaint about Murali was of a piece with some of his other whines: "Let's face it - Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are being kept on the international stage for political reasons ... Talking of politics, why were so few questions raised about the way the Asian subcontinent has taken a stranglehold on World cricket?" For Crowe, "politics" is a netherworld of double talk and deal-making, the antithesis of the Spirit of Cricket. But without "politics", there would be no Test cricket and no ICC, which was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 partly to facilitate the integration of South Africa into the empire following the trauma of the Boer Wars. The decision to grant New Zealand Test status in 1927 was also disputed, at least by the Australians, who refused to play against their neighbours for decades. Rather than rail against "politics", it would have been more useful to ask why cricket has no system of promotion and relegation to Test status, and whether such a thing could be contrived. Outside of that, the inclusion or exclusion of any country will continue to be, as it has always been, a matter of "politics" - ie subject to economic, democratic and diplomatic pressures. While disparaging Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, Crowe lauds 'Twenty20' as the way to "grow the game globally" particularly in "large untapped markets like China and the US." Whatever its short-term commercial advantages, Twenty-20 squeezes cricket to bite size, and in doing so sacrifices much of what actually makes the game distinctive - never mind what it may do to its ineffable spirit. Three years ago, Crowe got into trouble for writing: "Not many Maori make good cricketers because they don't have the patience or the temperament to play through a whole day, let alone over a Test match." He was forced to apologise for the remark. So I won't be the only one disinclined to accept lectures from Crowe about either "politics" or the Spirit of Cricket. In any case, as will be clear from the above, I think the term is useless. That's not to deny that the game is indeed more than the sum of its laws: it is everything that history has made it. But the Spirit of Cricket, as it is lived by players and spectators, has always involved, along with camaraderie, large doses of competitive zeal, aggression and rivalry. As the late Fred Trueman once said: "Use every weapon within the rules, and stretch the rules to breaking point." Like most sports fans, I want to see players treat opponents with respect. I like it when crowds acknowledge fine play on both sides. Partisanship and the will to dominate are as much part of cricket as any other game and require no justification: they are built into competitive sport However, I do like to see them tempered, not by some lofty unreal code, but by a sound enjoyment of the game for what it is and an awareness of what it is not.

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Re: Martin Crowe bitching Some bowlers, even those never suspected of having flawed actions, were found likely to be straightening their arms by 11 or 12 degrees. Some bowlers that were not precisely mentioned above included Warnie, McGrath, Lee, and Gillespie among others.

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