Having on-field commentator made mockery of an international match

Thursday night’s exhibition match in which the West Indies crushed Rest of the World XI by 72 runs at Lord’s in London was aimed at raising funds to repair five cricket grounds in the West Indies that were damaged by hurricanes last year. It may have been a success in that regard.

Yet, it wasn’t like any other exhibition game. It has been accorded the international status. However, did the match deserve an international status? 

All-rounder Andre Russell spoke proudly before the game about how happy he was to be wearing the West Indian maroon after two years.

But all seriousness of an international match was lost when there was a 16th member on the field after umpires called play. 

In a first of its kind at the Home of Cricket where the game’s tradition is followed to the last detail, the official broadcaster Sky Sports decked up its commentator, former England captain Nasser Hussain, with a GoPro camera on his cap and a microphone in hand to join the 11 fielders, two batsmen and the on-field umpires to add more variety to the telecast.

Hussain went around the field, standing between the wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi and first slip — call it half-a-slip if you like — when Rest’s Mitchell McClenaghan started proceedings with the ball. 

Hussain carried out interviews with the players in between deliveries, gathering what the mood was like, how the pitch behaved, asking bowler Tymal Mills what he was going to bowl next and the West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels’s plan of action against Shoaib Malik.

He even stood with the mic in hand when Gayle was receiving medical attention after being hit on the helmet and recorded the chat between him and the team doctor.

Hussain asked Mills, who was walking to the top of his bowling mark: “Pace on or pace off”. The left-armer checked if he was being heard in the public system. After being told by Hussain that the spectators as well as Gayle would hear him, he said answered “pace off” before beginning his run-up. 

Hussain, in taking his position, bent down to the mic to say “it means pace on” to the television viewers.

Yes, the on-field roving reporter may have given insights to the players’ moods, but it’s just not on in an international game. 

As it is, in T20s, fans can get into the minds of the players by wiring them up and the TV commentators asking questions.

However, by having a commentator on the field of play was a needless gimmick that may have been acceptable in friendly matches where there is no seriousness. In a match accorded international status, it only made a mockery of the game.

Furthermore, the International Cricket Council (ICC) had abolished runners for injured batsmen in international matches in 2011. But, on Thursday night, Shahid Afridi was allowed a runner in Sam Billings.

The ICC has gone back in its own words when, in 2011, it said the “runners were not used in the right spirit” while abolishing runners in international cricket. 

That an unfit 38-year-old Afridi was allowed one in his last international game showed that the ICC gave in to his sentiments that this was his farewell match, something that even the Pakistan Cricket Board did not give him.

Whether T20s in the future would be covered by the official broadcasters by having a roving reporter in the field of play and thrusting microphones under players’ noses irrespective of the mood they are in is anybody’s guess. 

But Thursday’s T20I has taken a new route in which the sanctity of the cricket field has taken a beating.