Best summary of WALKING events and what cricket is all about....Excerpts:
Australia walk into Kumble's waiting arms
By Simon Briggs in Madras
(Filed: 15/10/2004)
Test cricket's endless capacity for surprise was reaffirmed yesterday in Madras. Not only did Australia lurch from a seemingly impregnable position to their worst collapse in India, but three of their batsman actually opted to walk rather than wait for the umpire's decision.
The image of the day was not supplied by Anil Kumble, India's saviour with seven wickets in 63 balls, but by umpire David Shepherd, who looked utterly bemused when Michael Kasprowicz received a not-out verdict, but then turned and walked off anyway. "Did he hear me say 'not out'?" an incredulous Shepherd was seen to ask non-striker Simon Katich.
The three walkers - Kasprowicz, Jason Gillespie and stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist - were all dismissed in the same way, caught at bat-pad off the dynamic Kumble. But Gilchrist emphasised last night that there was no team policy on walking. "A lot was made of the umpiring in the last Test and maybe people are thinking about that and understanding what a difficult job it is for the umpires," he said. "It's got to be a positive for the game." Whether captain Ricky Ponting, who has been ruled out of the next Test with a fractured thumb, agrees is another matter.
Yesterday's events were a long way from the traditional image of the Australian cricketer as someone who only walks when he runs out of petrol. But the tourists' sportsmanship was reciprocated in the final over, when Indian opener Yuvraj Singh was caught behind off a fine inside-edge and declined to wait for the decision.
Australia may be hoping that such gestures may win back admirers after Bangalore, where the price of a couple of flukey wickets turned out to be a hailstorm of public censure. But their generosity came at a heavy price. Plunging from 136 for no wicket to 235 all out, Gilchrist's team evoked the recurring nightmare of Calcutta 2001
