Nehra episode an unsavoury controversy

The recently concluded Test match between India and Zimbabwe at Bulawayo threw up an odious record that every bowler would aim to avoid. In the second innings, Delhi left arm seamer Ashish Nehra was warned twice for running on the pitch and then banned from bowling further when he transgressed for the third time. Umpire Russell Tiffen cautioned the bowler twice and it was Darrell Harper at the other end who finally put an end to Nehra's efforts. This was the first time in Indian cricket that a bowler had been banned from bowling.

The law concerning this aspect of the game is very clear. If a player runs on the protected area, (the protected area', is defined as that area contained within a rectangle bounded at each end by imaginary lines parallel to the popping creases and 5ft/1.52m in front of each and on the sides by imaginary lines, one each side of the imaginary line joining the centres of the two middle stumps, each parallel to it and 1ft/30.48cm from it) he is two be warned by the umpire twice. If the bowler runs down the protected area in his follow through a third time, the umpire is left no option but to instruct the captain to take the bowler off the attack with immediate effect.

That is precisely what happened.

Historically however, such a thing is not completely without precedent. In 1967-68, Kiwi fast bowler Dick Motz was removed from the attack in similar circumstances in a Test match against India. Motz, then one of New Zealand's leading bowlers bowled just 14 overs in the second innings, having taken 6/63 in the first innings.

However, the incident has come in for some criticism in the Hindustan Times. The Delhi newspaper carries a report from Bulawayo suggesting that Nehra was bowling to a plan. The report goes on to add, "Coach John Wright and skipper Sourav Ganguly got an immense brain wave and reasoned that if they played two left-arm pace bowlers in the XI it would create sufficient rough outside the right hander's off stump, which would be subsequently exploited by the off spinner Harbhajan Singh." The skipper and coach would not take kindly to the insinuation that the Indian team were seeking to derive extra advantage in this manner.

While neither Wright nor Ganguly have issued an explanation in regard to this incident, the team manager, former Indian opening batsman Chetan Chauhan said that the matter was being looked into and would be corrected. However, Nehra, the pick of the Indian bowlers in the Test match has no history of problems with his run up.

It is unfortunate that such issues have come up just when India are savouring their first Test win outside the subcontinent in 15 years. Nehra, with just two Test matches behind him, would do well to steer clear of matters of this kind and concentrate on finding the outside edge of opposition batsmen instead.