Batsman on 98, bowler’s shameful act denies him a century

Cricket is called a ‘gentleman’s game’ not for no reason. The International Cricket Council, which is the governing body of the sport, has stringent rules in place to ensure that the game is played in its true spirit. But it eventually boils down to the individuals playing the sport at different levels to uphold the spirit of the game.

In a league match in England recently, a bowler denied a batsman his maiden century by throwing the ball over the boundary. The match in question was part of the Somerset Cricket League and the two teams involved were Minehead Cricket Club and Purnell Cricket Club. Jay Darrell, a batsman from Minehead CC, was on 98 and eyeing his maiden century when the bowler threw the ball over the boundary ropes to concede a no-ball. In the process, he denied Darrell his century.

As expected, this incident has been met with a lot of furore in cricketing parleys. Minehead CC player Angus Marsh took to Twitter and dubbed the incident as “the worst cricket moment of my life”.

This tweet was picked up by Piers Morgan, one of the leading voices in England, who expressed shock at the turn of events.

Former Kent and England cricketer Rob Key, who was on air for the Nottinghamshire’s T20 match against Worcestershire for Sky Sports, slammed the bowler and called his actions “appalling”.

However, the batsman did not create too much noise and tried his best to play the incident down and focused more on the result which went in favour of his side.

Purnell Cricket Club have issued a statement which promises to deal with the player concerned according to rules and spirit of the game.