Should he or shouldn’t he?

Watching England’s superb win last night I saw a team fulfilling it’s potential. I was particularly impressed by Eoin Morgan’s batting, a perfect example of what a genuine ‘finisher’ in the mould of Hussey and Dhoni can do for England.

I also saw a brilliant example of the steel of England’s captain Andrew Strauss. Graeme Smith, having already scored a ton, appeared to be struggling with some sort of hamstring problem and asked for a runner to be brought out. Strauss refused the request, and Smith seemed pretty pissed off about it at the time. Now I’m not sure if there will be debate over the rights and wrongs of this decision, cricket is supposed to be a gentleman’s sport after all and in the name of ‘being sporting’ some may think you should accede to this request.

But I would ask one question. What would Ricky Ponting do? The answer? Ricky Ponting would tell Smith to eff off if he thinks he’s getting a runner when he’s got cramp because he’s on 120 not out and has been batting for over 2 hours in the high veldt. And when the match could go either way and was swinging in South Africa’s favour.

And quite right he would be too. I’m all for sporting and gentlemanly conduct in cricket, it’s one of the reasons I love the game. But there comes a time in any sport where the match situation is so finely balanced that you have to be tough and say no, we’re here to win and to be honest, screw the opposition.