October 11th, 2006

Cheating 101 - Success through a darker means

Cricket has been hampered by yet another setback where a club team had to walk out in protest and concede a match due to incessant, intolerable and biased umpiring.

The victims of such row of intolerable nuisance were Las Vegas Cricket Club and the culprits were none other than the Lankan Cricket and Recreation Club.  Both the head and leg umpires masterminded a series of questionable “No Ball” calls and a clear edge that a batsman blatantly dictated the umpire not to give out. The excuse was the bat hitting the ground which created a sound similar to a ball hitting part of a wood. Despite a major deflection which was visible by fielders all around the field except for the two standing umpires.

Surely, LCRC must have this down to the tee as the umpires were shamelessly smirking at the outcry by the bowler, wicket-keeper and the rest of the LVCC members. One wonders if all members of LCRC are subjected to their club initiation class titled “Cheating 101 – Success through a darker means”, where week one and two teaches how to throw dignity and shame out the window in the name winning and how to add additional runs to the scorecard. Evidence in each of LCRC’s scorecard indicates an addition of 10-20 runs. After a thorough audit of Game 5, LCRC’s scoring indicated a 14-run addition to the final total, making an even stronger case for opponents to question who adds how much. Is it formulaic or deliberate?  Who knows?  This gesture of discretion is a weekly practice.

The only irony behind the weekend’s debacle is that LVCC’s allowed LCRC’s players to play a league match despite their hour and a half late arrival. In a way, it was a lesson learned to not give your opponent a chance to breathe. A forfeit was justifiable before the start of the league match, but clear conscious was the forte in the Xpress camp.

So what’s the next step the Xpress? Practice what your opponents preach or move along and demoralize the team by winning emphatically. The answer to that question lies at the end of the Ten-10 Tournament being held in November. LVCC are still on top of the leader board and are looking to sweep the next couple of matches against UNLV. Hopefully the Xpress will be looking to dominate despite conceding the match by walking off the field and writing yet another chapter in club cricket history.

A word of caution and friendly advice to the rebels for the next match against LCRC, question each run and call as they too may fall victims to incessant nuisance.

Submitted by: Adnan Khawaja