A moment unnoticed spoke volumes for cricket's spirit

A moment of cricketing fraternity between rivals went almost unnoticed in the middle of Wellington's Westpac Stadium just before the start of the fifth National Bank Series match between New Zealand and India.

It is understood to have resulted from Indian observations of some criticism in the New Zealand media of the bowling action of Auckland all-rounder Kyle Mills.

Mills was 12th man and was working with other players just off the side of the pitch before the match.

Once the formalities of the toss had been completed, which Indian Sourav Ganguly lost, meaning he was last to be interviewed by the television crews who do their various duties in the lead-up to matches, Ganguly walked across to Mills and engaged him in conversation.

It was clearly quite an amicable discussion.

CricInfo understands that the gist of the conversation was that as far as the Indians were concerned they were not upset with Mills' bowling action.

While there was no official comment about the discussion available last night, it is also understood that Ganguly intimated that it was an unusual stance for the media of a player's own country to be taking and was not something he would have expected to happen in India.

It is up to match umpires, and referees, to note the irregularities of players' bowling actions and to report the matter to the International Cricket Council match referee and for him to hand the matter to the ICC along with video footage of the players' bowling in the match concerned.

If a player is reported, the match referee is required to make an announcement to the media within 24 hours of the player being reported.

No such report has been made in this series to date.