Short Cut! (29 January 1999)

29 January 1999

Short Cut!

Tony Cozier

Concerned that it could get out of hand, West Indies manager Clive Lloyd is to raise the issue of excessive short-pitched bowling with International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee, Javed Burki of Pakistan, following South Africa's effective bouncer barrage in Wednesday night's third One-day International in Durban.

"We're not complaining about our defeat because we should have won the match after the start we got but we felt the short stuff was overdone," Lloyd said yesterday as the teams headed for Port Elizabeth for the fourth match in the seven-match series.

"I am the last man to quibble about bouncers," Lloyd acknowledged, referring to the four-pronged pace attack he used with telling effect during his successful tenure as West Indies captain. "But it's different in One-day cricket where the regulations on balls rising to shoulder height or above are explicit."

"I'll ask for a meeting with the match referee before the next match to point out our worry that it could spoil the remainder of the series if it's allowed to go unchecked," he said. "There're fast bowlers on both sides capable of using the tactic."

Openers Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Junior Murray added 88 from the first 11.3 overs of the innings as the West Indies went after South Africa's 274 for nine. But then Steve Elworthy, Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener, exploiting a pitch freshened by the dew under the floodlights, launched their bodyline attack that swung the balance of the match.

Elworthy hit Murray on the helmet, Brian Lara took a blow on the wrist from the pacy Kallis that needed on-the-field attention, Chanderpaul and Keith Arthurton were out hooking and Hooper was caught fending off a ball heading for his throat.

The session added another electric charge to the match following Daryl Cullinan's rare handled-the-ball dismissal in South Africa's innings.

Cullinan played a ball from Arthurton into the ground and caught it on the rebound before it became dead and when it might have spun back onto the stumps. Umpire David Orchard ruled him out after captain Lara walked from extra-cover to lodge a delayed appeal.

The decision provoked boos from sections of the ground, some television commentators contended the appeal was "not in the spirit of the game" and the South African players were known to be angry over the incident.

When the West Indies were struggling in the face of Kallis's hostile attack, standing umpire Wilf Diedericks, in his 24th One-day International and his first of the series, allowed several marginal deliveries to pass, including the dismissals of Arthurton, Hooper and, later, Nixon McLean. More than once, Orchard from square-leg appeared to indicate deliveries that were above shoulder level but Diedericks did not call them.

Elworthy was called for two no-balls on height in 7.1 overs, Klusener for three in six over and Kallis for three in 10.

From this season, South Africa's domestic limited-over tournament allows one over-the-shoulder bouncer an over and Diedericks' leniency could have been prompted by that.

Lloyd repeated his call for the same arrangement for umpires in Tests to be applied to ODIs, with one ICC National Grid umpire appointed.

"This is something I've been advocating long before this series began and it will be in my report to the Board after the tour," he said. "We should accept by now that One-day Internationals are a very important part of the game that attract large crowds and plenty of television coverage. They deserve to have the best officials just as much as the Tests."

Even with the short bowling, Lloyd was disappointed that the innings fell away so drastically after the opening by Chanderpaul, who carried his tally in three matches to 247 with 52 off 44 balls, and Murray, opening for the first time in the ODI series.

"We again played some poor shots to get out when all we needed to do was keep up a rate of between four and five an over," he said.

The West Indies fell short of their target by 55 runs and were 6.5 overs short of their allocation of 50.

They have made only one change to the XI in the three matches so far while South Africa, sorting out their squad for the World Cup in England in May and June, have used 16 of their squad of 17. The expensive accounts of McLean and McGarrell are likely to cause a rethink prior to tomorrow's match.

McLean, one of only three fast bowlers retained for the series, bowled with as little control as he did in the Tests, conceding 160 runs from his 21.5 overs so far (7.25 per over) while the left-armer McGarrell has cost 142 from 20 (7.1 per over).

Yet Lara has persisted with them for the closing overs where they have proved costly, even leaving Reon King (4.47 per over) three short of his 10 on Wednesday.

Rawl Lewis, whose round-the-wicket leg-spin had been a regular in the ODI squad since the Sharjah tournament just over a year ago, deserves a recall while Keith Semple's medium-pace is worth more than the five overs he was given, under pressure, in the first rain-shortened match.

Where the difference between the teams has been most marked is the fielding-and there is nothing that can be immediately done to narrow that gap. It is an area the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has to urgently address at the junior levels for South Africa has set standards that will become the norm in the new millennium.

Source :: The Trinidad Express (https://www.trinidad.net/express/)