A serene Pakistani & the Spirit of Cricket award
Cricket, unlike many other sports, has always been termed as ‘Gentlemen’s game’. And to make it more formal, in the year 2000; the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) which governs the laws of the game introduced a Preamble called the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ to the laws.
Spirit of Cricket - Preamble
It states that - “Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the Spirit of the Game. Any action which is seen to abuse this spirit causes injury to the game itself. The major responsibility for ensuring the spirit of fair play rests with the captains.”
It further goes on to say that the spirit of the game involves respect for one’s opponents, one’s own captain & team, the role of the umpires, the game and its traditional value.
Since then the players have to abide by this ‘spirit of the game’. Taking cognisance of this, the International Cricket Council (ICC) included ‘Spirit of Cricket Award’ as one of the award categories in their annual list of awards. From 2004 (the year in which the ICC awards were institutionalised) to 2010, this award was given to a team. But from 2011 onwards it has been given to individuals.
India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the first individual to get this award. Two Sri Lankans, one Britisher and one New Zealander have been the recipient of this awards since then. And until the 2016 awards, no Pakistani had ever received this award.
Nothing Pakistani about Misbah
But then Misbah-ul-Haq is unlike any other Pakistani cricketer. In a land where cricketers become stars in their teenage, he made his test debut just a couple of months before his 27th birthday. Neither does he jump mimicking opposition team’s wicket-keepers like Javed Miandad nor does he point bat & fingers at bowlers like Amir Sohail did. He is rarely in the limelight for his good performances but like a true leader of men, is always the first to take the blame for the defeats.
His presence has a soothing affect on a team which has traditionally been known for their aggression. Yes, he may not have achieved the stardom status which many of his predecessors had and the primary reason behind this is that he failed against arch-rivals India in the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup.
Such is the hatred between the two nations that players often have to take bad performances in matches involving the two teams to their grave. Had his scoop cleared Sreesanth and gone for a boundary he would have had a different status in his homeland. But Misbah doesn’t complain and goes about his business in a nonchalant manner.
This year he did something spectacular both as a cricketer and as a human being. As a cricket captain, he got Pakistan to the zenith of test rankings. Not many would have backed him to take his team to the top when he had taken charge of the team just after the spot-fixing saga in 2010.
Push-ups after a century
It was his other act of doing push-ups to celebrate a century that won hearts all over the world. Citing reasons for that unorthodox act at Lords, the mecca of cricket he had said, "We did a camp in Abbottabad before the skill camp in Lahore, and we used to do an honour code every time, we just stepped into the ground and did ten push-ups. And I promised them, if ever I score a hundred, I will definitely do that to remind you that we were there.”
ICC acknowledged his contribution in retaining the spirit of the game and awarded him with the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ award this year. Commenting on the award he said, “As a team, we have focused on playing within the rich traditions of the sport with a positive mindset and approach so that we can entertain the spectators and fans, and at the same time, challenge the oppositions. I am glad that this has been noticed and recognised by the game's governing body.”
Now like with any other award, there would be critics who would say that there were more deserving candidates for this category. To them, I would just say that I don’t know about other deserving candidates; but if at all one Pakistani player has ever deserved the spirit of cricket award then it has to be Misbah without an iota of doubt.