North Sound: Cricket, also known as the gentleman’s game has seen many acts of sportsmanship in the past. But what happened in a Regional Super50 tournament match in the West Indies would always be remembered as an incident contrary to the spirit of the game.
The match, between the Leeward Islands and Kent was being played in North Sound on Tuesday. Islands, who had posted a 184-run target needed to defend four runs of the final over against Kent,who had their opening batsman Zack Crawley batting on 98.
Crawley, the 20-year-old needed two more runs to complete his maiden List A century but Sheeno Bridge, who came into the attack had other ideas in mind.
Kent, at 180/1 had more or less secured the win but Bridge, trying to stop Crawley from reaching his hundred bowled two balls wide outside the off-stump. The third one too was headed in that direction itself but Crawley managed to get some bat on it to take a single and give the strike to Sean Dickson, the man at the other end.
With Kent requiring just one run to win, Dickson tried to play the remainder of the over so that Crawley could get to his hundred. The last delivery of the over was pushed to the mid-wicket region and while Dickson tried to stop the single so that Crawley could face the next over and get to his hundred, the Islands fielder reportedly allowed the ball to get to the boundary, thus finishing the match.
Crawley, nonetheless was handed the Man-of-the-match award for his knock, but this unsportsmanlike gesture from Islands received a lot of criticism.