The commentariat’s moral grandstanding over Deepti Sharma’s run-out of Charlie Dean seems to suggest that neither the existing laws, nor the umpires’ decision, nor the MCC’s imprimatur matter much.
A team lost a cricket match, and a nation lost its collective marbles.
Cricket has a peculiar genius for manufacturing controversies out of thin air—but even by the standards of the sport, the aftermath of the 3rd ODI between the women’s teams of England and India was an outlier for the cognitive dissonance displayed by the commentariat.
Unless you were on a Mars mission or something, you know what happened. And you know the context—England needed 17 runs to pull off a consolation win after losing the first two ODIs; India needed one wicket to complete a shutout. Charlie …
Prem Panicker has been a journalist for over 30 years. From daily newspapers to weekly magazines and digital news portals—he was one of the seven journalists who were part of the Rediff.com start-up team—he has written and edited features extensively across mediums and publications. Since quitting his job at Yahoo in 2014, he has been working as a freelance writer and editor, as well as teaching narrative journalism.
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