To walk or not to walk

[Zainub]

I have always and will always have greater respect and admiration for those sportmen and women, not only cricketers who play the game in the best possible spirit - unfortunately as the norm is competetivness and competetion for glory has increased over the years and that means a lot is at stake in virtually every match you play, even every run you take or ball you bowl. Fewer and fewer players henceforth are now seen abiding by the once prevalent tradition of 'walking'.

Obviously quite a few of us will have a different take on this issue, but I tend to think its a personal decesion, a decesion that should be appreciated rather than be criticised on the basis that its the umpire's job not the players' to decide if he's out or not. I'm sure the walk-ers (sorry if that's not a word) don't advice there team mates to walk or anything, so I don't see why the non-walk-ers should expect or even advicee the walk-ers to give up their habbit.

[Pete]

I don't mind if people don't walk, but it depends. I don't like it when people who don't walk then start moaning that they were given out unfairly. If you're not going to walk, you can't have a moan about decisions that go against you.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Pete

I don't mind if people don't walk, but it depends. I don't like it when people who don't walk then start moaning that they were given out unfairly. If you're not going to walk, you can't have a moan about decisions that go against you.

Pete,
Well I would not walk because it is the job of the umpire to say weather a player is out or not, I think walking is silly because over the years, the shots will have gone against you, just evens out the pitch, that is all.

[R W S]

I also, like Zainub, like to see the game played in a sporting way but not walking is not unsporting. Rubbing dirt from your pocket into the ball or using grease from your eyebrow or hair - now that is. Telling Tino Best to watch out for the windows is not unsporting. Suggesting your mother has no virtue is unsporting. Appealing for an catch at short leg when you are unsure is not unsporting. Appealing for a LBW decision from point or midwicket is.

[Occasional Fan]

Agree with everything except your first sentence, RWS. If you know you clipped the ball - and usually I think batsmen do know, don't they? - then it is not only unsporting to stand your ground, it is cheating. Ditto with run out calls - batsmen nearly always know whether they made it or not. I agree with you if the batsmam really doesn't know if he hit the ball or made his ground, not he is indulging in gamesmanship/professionalism/cheating. Old fashioned, perhaps, but there it is.

[Shaka]

When I made the comment that Steve Waugh must have been staring at the screen in disbelief at the sight of three Australian batsmen walking it wasn't that I approved or disapproved, just expressing surprise at this new found sporting athos from the Australians!

Personally I respect both sides, but I think in this day and age Steve was right...when you are going to get the bad decisions going against you why double the misery by eliminating the ones which go in your favour? The umpire is there to do the job why not just leave him to get on with it?

[Occasional Fan]

Shaka, it's all to do with the spirit of the game, isn't it? The phrase which we use for anything which seems like unfair conduct - "it's just not cricket" - didn't come about by some accident. Try as I might, and even allowing for the fact that there are huge amounts of money at stake nowadays, I can't accept that Steve was right on this - great cricketer though he undoubtedly was in other respects. I can feel that I'm in the minority here though!

Moving on, I see that Australia are now three down and still trailing. We must be looking for India to win from here, surely?

[Kirsty Harris]

I think that consistancy is more important than whether a player is a 'walker' or not. If a player (e.g. Atherton) always leaves it up to the Umpire to decide whether or not he is out, even if in his heart he feels he is, then that it fine. If a player always 'walks' if he thinks he is out, that is fine also. I have a problem with batsmen who are selective 'walkers' - who will walk in some situations but not others (sometimes just to take a pop at the opposition like Gilchrist).

[Nikhil]

Well, those are the words of Ian Chappel, when he saw the Aussie batsmen walking and the same guys appealing for caught behind wickets of non-existent edges and LBW's when the edge could be heard in the commentary box. The article is here.

[fair_&_balance]

Originally Posted by Nikhil

Well, those are the words of Ian Chappel, when he saw the Aussie batsmen walking and the same guys appealing for caught behind wickets of non-existent edges and LBW's when the edge could be heard in the commentary box. The article is here.

Nice article ..Thanks for link Nikhil. While we are on the story,yesterday Parthiv Patel also walked.

What the **** is going on..everyone is acting so nice. I misss the days when Ganguly made Steve Waugh wait 10 minutes for Toss.