Quote:
Originally Posted by iadom
To be fair if it hadn't rained for a day and a half England would have been in deep trouble. Fair play to Clarke for making a game of it, can't really blame them for doing what they did at the end.
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Quite - which is why I'm only criticising their hypocrisy. After slating England for negative tactics they did exactly the same by slowing down the over rate, bowling wide balls, etc. etc. etc. when it became clear that Clarke's decision to declare had badly backfired. It was they who needed the result to restore some shred of credibility to their tour so the declaration wasn't some sort of generous or magnanimous sporting gift to the fans - it was their only chance of winning the game. Had they been 1-0 up in the series you can bet Clarke would've batted at a snail's pace and done pretty much anything to drag out proceedings and stop England winning - to hell with the fans and the 'spirit of the game'.
It's a bit like all this guff about Broad not walking. Lehmann and others in the Aussie camp have called him a cheat knowing full well that most of their compatriots, past and present, have at some point done the very same thing. Sorry but I'm not too keen on lectures from the Australians on ethics, morals, the 'spirit of the game' etc. They've long been the masters of sledging and self serving tactics and all that was clearly acceptable to them when they were winning. Now they're getting thrashed they don't like being on the receiving end...
Like certain other world governing bodies, the ICC has all the hallmarks of being an inept organisation which has lost sight of its raison d'etre. They've come up with rules which defy common sense and were bound to wind up in an appalling situation like this, punishing those who pay the wages in the process.