LEFT ARM OVER
NEIL MANTHORP: Why ICC should allow a spot of spit and polish
At a well-known boys’ high school the headmaster often reminds the pupils that smoking behind the old gymnasium is not permitted. It is quite clear to anyone making the briefest of visits to the rear of the gymnasium that boys have been smoking there for decades. The point about the announcement is to keep the smokers in one, remote place where the masters won’t see them. It is also a tacit admission by the school that they can’t stop the practise, but they can maintain an element of control. It is almost two years since Faf du Plessis deliberately opened his mouth wide during a Test match against Australia to reveal a large, white mint on his tongue. He then stuck fingers in his mouth and rubbed the saliva on the ball before shining it. It was the act of a man tired of being treated like a school boy and frustrated by the hypocrisy of the institution. Sun cream and Vaseline Cricketers have been applying sun cream and Vaseline (Brylcreem was popular in the 1950s) to the ball for mo...
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