Tony Becca The third and final Test between England and India gets going at The Oval tomorrow and after hanging on to draw the first Test with nine wickets down in the second innings and still trailing by 97 runs, after winning the second Test by seven wickets after winning the toss and sending England to bat, India are leading the contest one-nil.
After starting the series as favourites despite the absence of Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones, however, England, playing at home, are desperate to win this last one in order to share the spoils and to save face.
After starting as the underdogs, India, boasting a poor record away from home, are hunting a victory, or a draw, that would result in celebrations from the north to the south of India and the promise is that there will be fireworks in South London.
In fact, it should be more than that: with batsmen like Kevin Pietersen and Michael Vaughan up against a pace bowler like Zaheer Khan and a spin bowler like right-arm leg-spinner Anil Kumble, with Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar up against pacers like Ryan Sidebottom and the giant, six feet seven inches Chris Tremlett, and a left-arm leg-spinner Monty Panesar, it should be a wonderful and intriguing contest even though the pitch promises to be a batsman's paradise.
What is important, however, is that the two teams play cricket the way the game should be played and do not resort to the embarrassing behaviour of the second Test match at Trent Bridge.
With batsmen on both sides adjudged out leg before wicket and caught behind the wicket when, according to television replays, they were not out, with batsmen on both sides adjudged not out leg before wicket and caught behind the wicket when, according to television replays, they were out, the match was poorly officiated.
It was so bad that it must have been numbered the worse officiated match for a long, long time - so much so that match referee Ranjan Madugalle should have spoken to umpires Simon Taufel of Australia and Ian Howell of South Africa.
WICKED BOUNCER
Sreesanth
As poor as the umpiring was, however, that was no excuse for the sort of behaviour by the players - the kind of behaviour that saw Pietersen verbally abusing Zaheer Khan, that saw a member of the England team throwing jellybeans onto the pitch while Khan was batting, that saw pace bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth shoulder-charging Vaughan, that saw Sreesanth bowling a head-high beamer to Pietersen, and the ugliest of all, the sort of behaviour that saw Sreesanth, in one delivery, bowling around the wicket, bowling the biggest no-ball that I have ever seen on any cricket field, in any cricket match, anywhere in the world, and bowling a wicked bouncer to Paul Collingwood.
And, if all that was bad, it was worse to hearthe England coach Peter Moores and David Graveney, the chairman of the England selection committee, defending the England players, including wicketkeeper Matt Prior, who babbles forever behind the stumps in an effort to upset the batsman.
According to Moores, the microphones should be turned down so that the players can have some privacy - so that what they say would not become public; and according to Graveney, the jellybeans incident was simply a joke.
Apart from the fact that the stump microphones are only turned on when the ball is live, Moores should realise that sledging is not good for the game and especially so when the ball is live - when the batsman is concentrating.
As far as Graveney is concerned, he should understand that to most people, jellybeans suggests that someone is a coward and to call an opponent a coward is simply not cricket.
As former Australian captain Ian Chappell has written, it would be interesting to see the reaction of all those who support sledging, especially the kind done by a wicketkeeper like Prior to unsettle the batsman at the striker's end while the bowler is running in, if, in response to the wicketkeeper versus the striker, the batsman at the non-striker's end starts to sledge the bowler while he is running in to bowl.
Apart from turning the game into a mockery, that would be very interesting.
The late, great Sir Neville Cardus, one of the finest writers on cricket the game has ever seen, the one who was called the Don Bradman of cricket writing, once said that cricket mirrors the society and if that is so, that may be the reason why, in this day and age, people like Moores and Graveney are defending behaviour which, over the years, has been frowned upon wherever the game has been played, at all levels.
According to Moores, Graveney and others, sport, competitive sport, is a battle, that is what makes it so enthralling to watch and, as it is in a sport like football, there is nothing wrong with a little agro.
Football, however, is football, cricket is cricket and what makes cricket so enjoyable is not sledging, it is not saying derogatory things about a fellow player or members of his family, it is not unsporting behaviour like charging another player, and it is not over-stepping by some two yards and bowling a bouncer.
The beauty of cricket is seeing things like a good bouncer, a well-pitched yorker, a well-flighted leg-break and a googly, a hook, a cut, a sweep, or the twinkling movement of the feet followed by a drive through extra-cover.
