The Daily Dose

Gayle's secret, Sarwan's story

Plus the catch that turned into a save that turned into a controversy

George Binoy
George Binoy
11-Jun-2009
Got you there, me hearties  •  Getty Images

Got you there, me hearties  •  Getty Images

The challenge of covering a tournament involving so many teams is in keeping one eye on the team you are following and the other on everyone else. It's not always possible, for teams play in different cities and hold simultaneous training sessions at different venues. Therefore a lot of your information comes from speaking to fellow journalists, media releases, and checking Cricinfo. Going informed to a press conference always helps, for players are unlikely to reveal anything newsworthy until asked. Unless the player is Chris Gayle.
On the eve of West Indies' game against Sri Lanka, most of the questions to Gayle were about whether his demolition of Australia was due to their all-pace attack and the IPL, and if West Indies were confident of turning around a poor English summer so far. So when asked right at the end if he expected Sri Lanka to open with a spinner against him - like teams did during the IPL - Gayle laughed it off, saying, "I don't know. I don't want to say too much. I don't know what will happen," before adding helpfully, "Carrying a bit of an injury as well, so I don't know if I'm playing." Hello? Come again? And with that the old story ideas had flown out of the window.
Attended the West Indies net session after that to see how Gayle was getting on and had a chat with Ramnaresh Sarwan, who told a funny story about how the players were very sceptical about the idea of getting into ice baths (when they were first introduced) wearing just tights or boxers. He said he jumped in and jumped right out again - you're supposed to stay in for a minute before going under hot water - because of the cold, and described the experience as "painful".
One of the best moments of the West Indies-Sri Lanka game was Angelo Mathews' fielding effort on the boundary to stop one of Sarwan's shots from going for six. Sarwan lofted Ajantha Mendis towards the long-on boundary, where Mathews tried to get into position to take the catch. He braced himself right on the boundary's edge and caught the ball, but realised he was going to go over the rope. So he threw it in the air and then fell over outside the boundary. Looking up, he saw that the ball would land outside the boundary, and so he picked himself up, jumped desperately and was in the air as he slapped the ball over the rope and back into play.
I was pretty sure it should have been six, because the fielder was outside the field of play when he got up and hit the ball back inside the boundary, even though his feet were off the ground. No one knew the rule for sure, but Nasser Hussain said the umpires had confirmed that it was indeed not a six. I wonder why more fielders haven't stepped over the boundary as they see a ball is just about to clear the rope, jump up so that their feet are in the air, and hit the ball back into play. I suppose the velocity of a descending six is a deterrent.
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Most neutral fans love it when Australia get beaten. A few wore hilarious face masks during the West Indies-Sri Lanka game - of Ricky Ponting wearing a woeful expression, with absurdly large teardrops streaming down his cheeks.

George Binoy is a senior sub-editor at Cricinfo