A desperate appeal indeed (28 January 1999)

28 January 1999

A desperate appeal indeed

Tawfiq Aziz Khan

South Africa were cruising along nicely against the West Indies at Durban. They were comfortably placed at 120 for the loss of Herschell Gibbs. Keith Arthurton was bowling his left-arm 'donkey drops' to Cullinan firmly saddled on 46. It was the fifth delivery of the 27th over.

Arthurton sent down a quickish one and Cullinan miscued. The ball hit the hard ground and bounced up quite a lot. As it started its dismount Cullinan caught it with his right hand probably in an innocuous attempt to help the fielding side. But that was a silly thing to do. If he counted to protect his stumps he could have very well done it after the ball had landed on the pitch and took a turn towards the stumps. At that point Cullinan could either stop it with his bat or kick it out of harm's way. But West Indies captain Brian Lara, who is having a torrid time against the South Africans having been white washed 5-0 in the Test series, desperately needed a wicket at that stage and appealed to umpire David Orchard, who had no option but to raise his finger against Cullinan. It was Orchard's 35th ODI and both he and Cullinan became part of cricket history. This was the first such decision in an ODI.

But the burning question remained. Did Lara work against the spirit of the game of cricket?

Incidentally, it was also my first such experience.

Source :: The Bangladesh Daily Star (https://www.dailystarnews.com)