Tag cricket tips

Three batsman at the crease is a rare sight on a cricket field. It happens only when a batsman is physically injured and can't run for his own self.

Cricket rules allows one player from the team to run for the injured batsman, but looking at modern day cricket - I see teams using this little flaw in ICC ruling to their advantage.

Herschelle Gibbs of South Africa twice had a runner (in 434 Johannesburg match vs Australia & T20 opening match against windies) where right handed batsman displayed breath-taking batsmanship, scored 175 & 90* respectively, and won the match for his country. Same thing happened when Saeed Anwar of Pakistan scored the highest One day International score - 194 at Chennai vs India.

Now Consider the following..

50 over games (100 overs if you include fielding overs as well) can be quite tiring for the players. more so when so much of cricket is being played, and a team is in the middle of a long tour. In such cases, running 70 odd singles per innings can easily cause dehyderation or cramps. aged cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Mathew Hayden & Sanath Jayasuriya are quite prone to run out of energy in today's non-stop cricket world. Even the best atheletes would struggle for long 9 hours in the sun!

So, why not fake an injury and convince the umpire for a runner very early into your innings. Little bit of practise can teach the three batsman how to run when the moment comes, and exceptional telents like Sachin (who are not able to score centuries the way they used to) can remain fresh for going longer than a 100 runs per innings.

You've to convince the umpire, of course, but one who believes in anything for the country - can excute the above trick smartly. Look at Adam Gilchrist, who prouds himself of being a very honest cricketer but never fails to adjust a squash ball inside batting gloves.. just another missing link in cricket rule book.

Can you tell me what happens when both the on-wicket batsmen need a runner? your comments.