By Lindsay Ash
IF you are of a certain generation then cheating was strictly a no-no be it in exams, on the playing fields or with a partner. This has been somewhat usurped by course work, waiting for the umpire’s finger if you’ve hit it, and friends with benefits…
The issue of what constitutes cheating was brought into sharp focus last week during the Ashes when the Australian wicket-keeper, one Alex Carey (who can probably trace his ancestry back to Prisoner No 2345), threw down the wicket thus running out a fair-skinned, ginger-haired Englishman who, struggling in the sun, had walked out of his crease, no doubt looking for a drink. Technically this was within the rules but to many it was not in the spirit of the game and thus was cheating.
It highlights the whole subject of what’s fair and what’s not and in which sports.
Probably the two where cheating is most frowned upon are snooker and golf. Snooker, at least in the professional game, is exemplary, with players calling fouls on themselves if necessary.
Golf, however, is slightly different – if people can they will use the rules to their benefit. This is not actually cheating, of course, but not Corinthian at times either.We see a few examples in the professional game when, having carved the ball into an unplayable position, the player will claim to have his swing impeded by a TV tower and thus get an advantageous drop. Of course, in the amateur game golf courses are infested with rabbits scraping all over the place beside staked trees.
Probably the two most contrasted sports when it comes to allegations of cheating are football and rugby. People will tell you that footballers are cheats – diving, trying to con refs etc. They are 100% right, of course, and it’s getting worse – although VAR has slowed it up somewhat.
Rugby, on the other hand, is played by decent people who’d never dream of cheating… RUBBISH. Rugby is a game played by cheats, killing the ball, blocking runners and God knows how many front-row and scrummage infringements that go on which, as an ex-fly half, I have no idea about. The difference between the two is the man with the whistle. In football he is a cheating **** **** **** when he spots an obvious dive or an over-the-top challenge whereas in rugby it’s fair do’s to the man, a fair cop guv, back ten and all shut up.
The worst example of cheating is the Sport of Kings (as it can again now be fairly described) and I’m not talking about where some nag is held back to come ninth at Plumpton before romping home at Hexham two days later at 5-4 having been backed from 25-1…
No. This is where it is actually condoned by the authorities. Racing these days has something called a ‘whip rule’ where you are only allowed to strike a horse a certain number of times in a race. Now, you are thinking that obviously if you do break this rule you are disqualified and the horse placed last. Well you’d think so but no, you’d be wrong. The jockey can break the rule to a massive extent and the horse still wins the Derby. The owner and trainer still win the Derby plus all the millions that go with it and the jockey is suspended for two weeks from nothing races at Plumpton and Hexham. (And yes I know, racing officianados, those are jump tracks, it was merely journalistic licence. Yarmouth and Salisbury then, okay?)
So where does this latest cricketing ‘offence’ lie in sport’s cheating pantheon? I was asked this by someone with little knowledge of cricket but a firm follower of football. I explained it thus… in football you get away with what you can get away with and it’s largely seen as okay depending on whether the ref does or doesn’t see it your way. A classic example was Maradona’s goal in the 1986 World Cup. We in England thought it was cheating but the rest of the world thought he’d got away with it and that’s part of the game like shirt-pulling, feigning injury and diving – the exception probably being Scotland who merely didn’t care and just thought it absolutely hilarious.
But no, this wasn’t like Diego’s ‘Hand of God’, this was, to put it in a football perspective, where after a foul instead of passing it back to the keeper you kick it into the goal. Technically within the rules but not something anyone would condone, even in football.
In conclusion, it was in the rules so nothing the umpires could have done – a bit like bowling a ball along the ground years ago if six was needed to win. It wouldn’t quite be cricket, would it? Not, of course, that anyone would do that but if they did I expect you’d change the rules!
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Lindsay Ash was Deputy for St Clement between 2018 and 2022, serving as Assistant Treasury and Home Affairs Minister under Chief Minister John Le Fondré. He worked in the City of London for 15 years as a futures broker before moving to Jersey and working in the Island’s finance industry from 2000.Feedback welcome on Twitter @Getonthelash2.
