Spirit of Cricket

(adapted from the MCC Laws of Cricket)

Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the Spirit of the Game. Any action which is seen to abuse this spirit causes injury to the game itself. The major responsibility for ensuring the spirit of fair play rests with the captains.

A) Captains Role
There are two Laws which place the responsibility for the team’s conduct firmly on the captain. Responsibility of captains The captains are responsible at all times for ensuring that play is conducted within the Spirit of the Game as well as within the Laws. Player’s conduct In the event of a player failing to comply with instructions by an umpire, or criticising by word or action the decisions of an umpire, or showing dissent, or generally behaving in a manner which might bring the game into disrepute, the umpire concerned shall in the first place report the matter to the other umpire and to the player’s captain, and instruct the latter to take action.

B) Fair and Unfair Play
According to the Laws the umpires are the sole judges of fair and unfair play. The umpires may intervene at any time and it is the responsibility of the captain to take action where required.

C) The umpires are authorised to intervene in cases of:
• Time wasting
• Damaging the pitch
• Dangerous or unfair bowling
• Tampering with the ball
• Any other action that they consider to be unfair

D) The Spirit of the Game involves RESPECT for:
• Your opponents
• Your own captain and team
• The role of the umpires
• The game and its traditional values

E) It is against the Spirit of the Game:
• To dispute an umpire’s decision by word, action or gesture
• To direct abusive language towards an opponent or umpire
• To indulge in cheating or any sharp practice, for instance:
• To appeal knowing that the batsman is not out
• To advance towards an umpire in an aggressive manner when appealing
• To seek to distract an opponent either verbally or by harassment with persistent clapping or unnecessary noise under the guise of enthusiasm and motivation of one’s own side

F) Violence
There is no place for any act of violence on the field of play.

G) Players Captains and umpires together set the tone for the conduct of a cricket match.
Every player is expected to make an important contribution to this.

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RANDOM QUOTE

Babe Ruth

“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”

Michael Jordan

I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Bruce Lee

I don’t fear the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks. I fear the man who practiced one kick 10,000 times.

Ian Botham

To me, it doesn’t matter how good you are. Sport is all about playing and competing. Whatever you do in Cricket and in sport, enjoy it, be positive and try to win.

Brett Lee

I bowl my best when I am fittest and the best way to get fit is to bowl. That’s how you get your rhythm. You cannot really find a rhythm by bowling in the nets.

Muhammad Ali

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t Quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.

W G Grace

The great thing in hitting is, not to be half-hearted about it; but when you make up your mind to hit, to do it as if the whole match depended upon that particular stroke.

Mickey Mantle

It’s unbelievable how much you don’t know about the game you’ve been playing all your life.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.

Lionel, Lord Tennyson

Cricket, however, has more in it than mere efficiency. There is something called the spirit of cricket, which cannot be defined.

Mike Hussey

Test cricket is bloody hard work, especially when you’ve got Sachin batting with what looks like a three-metre-wide bat.

John Arlott

Cricket is a most precarious profession; it is called a team game but, in fact, no one is so lonely as a batsman facing a bowler supported by ten fieldsmen and observed by two umpires to ensure that his error does not go unpunished.

W G Grace

Every cricketer knows that in the early stages of a batsman’s innings i.e. before he gets his eye in — luck plays an important part.

Sachin Tendulkar

I hate losing and cricket being my first love, once I enter the ground it’s a different zone altogether and that hunger for winning is always there.

Rahul Dravid

My approach to cricket has been reasonably simple: it was about giving everything to the team, it was about playing with dignity and it was about upholding the spirit of the game. I hope I have done some of that. I have failed at times, but I have never stopped trying.