Five Laws of Cricket you may not know much about, Sports : Today Indya

Five Laws of Cricket you may not know much about

Sports

sportsamaze

Cricket is a game that has often been complicated with some of its lesser-known rules. It is only human to tend to forget some of these rules. In the fierce competition between the bat and ball, generally, some laws of the game are not noticed by either of the teams. Not even some of the fans who ardently and religiously follow the game of cricket might be knowing some of these rules.

Five Laws of Cricket you may not know much about

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), however, have explained each and every rule with proper explanation in their rule book and some of these lesser-known rules come into play in a few games of cricket. Here we have a look at five such rules that despite the advancement in technology, might be unknown to people who diligently follow the game.

1. Lost Ball

With the kind of power-hitters on display in modern-day cricket, especially in the shortest format of the game, balls getting lost is turning out to be the new normal. The likes of Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, AB de Villiers, etc. have been guilty of having lost many balls, thanks to their towering sixes that have sometimes landed either on the roof or directly out of the stadium.

If the ball is lost in such a situation, the fielding side can call it a ‘lost ball’. The delivery is then called dead and the umpires ask for another ball that is similar to the number of overs old, the previous ball was. The batsmen are then awarded runs according to the number of runs that they have managed to score on the previous ball. If the batsman has not hit the lost ball, the runs go down as extras.

2. No Appeal

There have been many occasions in cricket where due to different noises like that made by the crowd, sometimes the ball edged by the batsman is not heard by the umpire and the batsman are ended up being given not out. Although DRS has solved that issue as players can review the umpire’s decision, it is a completely different case when the players on the field themselves do not appeal for a decision.

According to the law made, a batsman cannot be given out by the umpire even if he is, until the fielding team appeals for it. The batsman however, has the freedom to walk away showing sportsman spirit. However, it is crucial for the fielding team to appeal. Else, the umpire is well within his rights to call the batsman back and declare the ball as a dead ball.

3. Mankading

The term “Mankading” came into existence for the first time when an Indian player Vinod Mankad dismissed an Australian batsman Bill Brown during a Test match in 1947. The rule states that the batsman at the non-striker’s end can only leave his crease once the bowler has released the ball.

However, for gaining a bit of a start, batsmen generally tend to move out of their crease a bit earlier than usual. Since Mankading is not considered by many to be in the spirit of the game, it was not seen happening frequently. However, the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin Mankading Jos Buttler in the IPL 2019 season has again sparked a debate on whether Mankading is fair or not. That being said, it is certainly within the rules of the game.

4. Restricting an injured player

In earlier days, players used to take advantage of the loophole in the rules and used to sit out while fielding for a considerable amount of time under the excuse that they were suffering from an injury. Thus, a rule was made that the umpire had to be informed by the players the genuine reason for them leaving the field.

If a player leaves the field for more than 15 minutes, he won’t be allowed to bat/bowl for that much amount of time in the next innings of the game. This rule considerably reduced the players taking advantage of the rule. But this is where the grey area sets in. In 2007, Sachin Tendulkar had left the field for 18 minutes in a Test against South Africa. While batting, India lost two quick wickets, but since the 18 minutes were not done, Tendulkar was not allowed to walk-in at his preferred No.4 position.

5. Handling the ball

Handling the ball is something that has always been a grey area as far as the law was concerned. While the law says that if a batsman tries to handle the ball intentionally, the umpire is well within his rights to adjudge him out. However, sometimes it isn’t difficult to judge whether the batsman has handled the ball intentionally. He might have handled it to prevent an injury by the ball coming towards him. These things might make it difficult for an umpire to give an impartial decision.

Article Original Source : https://sportsamaze.com/cricket/news/five-laws-of-cricket-you-may-not-know-...

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The Sidek Brothers Invented A Badminton Move So Lethal, The IBF Had To Ban It Permanently In 1982

Sports

rojakdaily

The Sidek brothers are no strangers in the world badminton circle.

While many of us grew up as fans of Lee Chong Wei, the Sidek brothers were credited for 1) popularising the sport in Malaysia and 2) putting our name out there.

Led by their father Sidek Abdullah Kamar, the five-member squad -- Misbun, Razif, Jalani, Rahman and Rashid -- started training at a very young age.

In a span of 15 years, the Sidek brothers became world-class players; winning medals in almost all major international tournaments, including the prestigious All England Championships, the Badminton World Cup and even the Olympics.

Their biggest accomplishment, one would argue, was when they clinched the Thomas Cup in 1992 on home soil.

The win solidified the Sidek brothers' legacy as true badminton legends, and their names still ring loud and proud in the country.

An invention that rocked the world

Among the five brothers, Misbun, the eldest of the lot, is known as the most accomplished of the family.

As a player, he won numerous international tournaments, incuding two Swedish Opens and two German Opens.

After hanging up his racquet at the tender age of 29, Misbun turned to coaching: in fact, he was one of the coaches of the 1992 Thomas Cup-winning squad.

He was then credited with nurturing, training and turning Lee Chong Wei into a world champion.

While his off-court achivements as a coach would most likely define his illustrious career when its all said and done, it was a move that he invented on the badminton court during his playing heydays that shook the badminton world.

Known as the 'S-serve' (which stands for Sidek-serve, not 'soft-serve', 'kay?), the infamous move caused outrage among the players as when used correctly, it could help a player win a match without breaking a sweat.

It was so sneakily lethal, in fact, the world badminton governing body had no choice but to ban it permanently after the Sidek Brothers, led by Misbun, demolished their competitors over and over again using the move back in the 1970s and the 1980s.

What is the S-serve?

To perform the S-serve, a player would hold the shuttlecock with the feathers pointing down, and the base of the shuttlecock pointing upwards.

Then, holding the racquet in a backhand position, the server hits the shuttlecock with a flick of the wrist instead of moving the whole arm.

By slicing the shuttlecock across the feather, it causes the shuttlecock to behave erratically and its trajectory hard to predict; sometimes the shuttlecock would drop sharply, and other times it would spin uncontrollably.

“We created this ‘S” service, where we served by hitting the shuttle from the feathers. This caused the shuttle to move erratically and made it difficult for the opponents to return it, unfortunately, it was banned," Razif told

The Star Online in an interview in 2019.

Although the S-serve was easy to pick up and learned by other players, defending against it was hard to do.

As the Sidek brothers started winning matches by exploiting the technique, more and more players started using the S-serve.

In fact, an unknown player managed to beat Luo Xia, the winner of the 1978 Asian Games and the 4th All China Games, with an eye-opening score of 0-15, 5-15 at the 1983 All China Games by using the S-serve the entire match.

Here's a video of the S-serve in action:

Putting an end to the technique

Not long after, more and more players started using and winning matches with the S-serve, and certain quarters, namely the English and Danish players, called for the move to be banned as they deemed it illegal.

The badminton community was soon divided into two camps: those who've learned and mastered the S-serve, and those who have not.

By then, even the Chinese players have adopted the S-serve, and when the move was put to a vote, China sided with Malaysia and Indonesia and hence, the serve remained legal.

Immediately after that, all hell broke loose at the 1982 All England Open; Chinese players were effectively using the S-serve and winning games, while our very own Sidek brothers even won the Men's Doubles crown.

As the S-serve made its way to the Thomas Cup competition in May that year, the call for the move to be banned got louder and louder.

Finally, on 1 July 1982, the International Badminton Federation (now known as the Badminton World Federation) decided enough is enough and proceeded to deem the S-serve illegal.

Badminton experts considered the S-serve to be violating the 'double contact rule' as the racquet was brushing both the feathers and the base simultaneously.

The motion to ban the S-serve was put to the vote once again, and this time, the move was voted 9 against 1 in favour of Denmark.

Since then, a rule was written which states that a player can only hit the base of the shuttlecock while serving.

It was too little too late by then, as the Sidek brothers have shown the world that a little creativity goes a long way.

Article Original Source : https://rojakdaily.com/news/article/11385/the-sidek-brothers-invented-a-bad...