LEFT ARM OVER
NEIL MANTHORP: Appeal delivers new footage and flaws in gut-feel decisions
For almost six-and-a-half hours Cricket SA’s freshly appointed legal team, led by advocate Dali Mpofu, presented evidence, some of it equally fresh, and argued for at least a reduction in the charge and subsequent punishment handed to Kagiso Rabada for the shoulder contact with Steve Smith at St George’s Park last week. It must have been a particularly challenging night for the judicial commissioner appointed to hear the appeal. Michael Heron did the job by video conference from his home in New Zealand, where proceedings started at 8pm and concluded at an eye-watering 2.30am. That’s an awfully long time to put up with SA buffering, especially with so much video evidence to review. Cricket SA’s legal team apparently obtained previously unseen footage of the contact from an angle that appears to indicate that Rabada withdraws his left shoulder moments before contact was made in a, presumably subconscious, effort to avoid it. They are also believed to have argued that the Australian ca...
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