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New Zealand vs Australia 2015-16: Brendon McCullum accused of abandoning spirit of game by journalist

It all started in the third One-Day International of Chappell-Hadlee Trophy between New Zealand and Australia at Hamilton when Mitchell Marsh was controversially ruled out

Brendon McCullum accused of abandoning spirit of game © Getty Images
Brendon McCullum accused of abandoning spirit of game © Getty Images

New Zealand’s maverick right-handed batsman Brendon McCullum  has been accused of abandoning the spirit of cricket by a journalist who tagged the batsman ‘a great sham’.  It all started in the third One-Day International of Chappell-Hadlee Trophy between New Zealand and Australia at Hamilton when Mitchell Marsh was controversially ruled out to a catch taken by Matt Henry off his own bowling. After Henry cupped the catch a replay of the big screen compelled the umpires to have another look at the incident. Marsh reaction to this was furious as he found himself on the other side of luck. This was soon followed by a sledging battle between Grant Elliott and Matthew Wade in which the latter called the former a ‘coward’.  READ: New Zealand bowlers help thrash Australia by 55 runs in 3rd ODI at Hamilton; Take series 2-1

Marsh’s dismissal was termed fair enough by many in the New Zealand as the correct decision was made but the process as McCullum himself describes as “far from ideal”. On this, a renowned journalist Mark Reason scathing took e detailed look and assessed the whole process which led to Marsh’s dismissal.

Reason wrote for stuff.co.nz saying, “The players and the umpires did not decide the Chappell-Hadlee one-day series between New Zealand and Australia. A hometown television producer and a baying mob pressed the requisite buttons. And when press came to shove, when tempers were on edge and the match was on the line, the Black Caps and their captain abandoned the spirit of cricket and showed it to be ‘the Great Sham’ that some of us always knew it to be.”

Reason further blamed McCullum of dissent towards the umpire for going up to Ian Gould and requests him to send the decision upstairs after the replay was displayed on the big screen.

“McCullum and Henry talked to Gould which you could argue neither were entitled to do. Technically both were now guilty of dissent.”

Reason appears to be enraged that television producers now have the control to manipulate the conclusion of a game. As he says, “Big Brother is now in charge”.

Reason wrote, “Previously in the series, Nathan McCullum, a guest commentator, had observed how batting coach Craig McMillan would have been annoyed because a New Zealand batsman had not got in the way of the bowler trying to save a run. Apparently that is something the team practises.

“…And now we know that this New Zealand side is coached to obstruct the field. So much for the spirit of the game. My hunch is that the Black Caps would still have found a way to win against the edgy Aussies, but this was not the way to do it,” Reason added.

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