When Ranjithsinghji first played leg glance in England, in order to counter his physical disability and turn it into his advantage, the purists of the game were quick to deride him who felt that the way to play the balls going outside the leg was to block them and ask the bowler to “Try that again mate!!”. The game has since then evolved constantly to attune itself to the growing demands of popular entertainment and long since lost most of the old world purity attributed to it, so much so that it is pertinent to ask if Cricket is still to be considered a gentlemen’s game anymore.

The most recent controversy over the Mankading (a term which in itself is notoriously unjustified) of Jos Buttler by Sachitra Senanayake in the last of the ODI series in England raises is the latest in the long list of infamies our beloved game is being littered with, and continues to divide opinion, more among the pundits and analysts than among the viewing public. Having read reactions to the articles written in websites, I have come to the conclusion that the public were more understanding towards the bowler, and his right to exercise the option of removing the bails if he considers the non-striker gaining unfair advantage by backing up too far. It is not a sight that they want to witness more often, but they get along with it just fine. While the Sri Lankan captain Matthews defended his bowler, his English counterpart bemoaned the dismissal, which again is expected, if not entirely appropriate, of them both.

What irks me the most is the constant “Spirit of Cricket” debates these incidents generally invite in the post-match analyses. The phrase itself is ambiguous and inconsistent in its definition as perceived by various teams, and is invoked rather selectively to suit their needs and as a means to fling thinly veiled barbs against their opponents.

If you browse casually through the most popular Cricket videos, the chances are that a sledge fest between Starc and Pollard or a Gambhir and Afridi are likely to be higher than any of the sublime knocks by Martin Crowe, Hashim Amla or Rahul Dravid. That should say a lot about the generation of fans watching the game and their expectations from it and the players have done nothing to quell these perceptions, they only added to the theatricality of the game. For the modern viewer, terms like Spirit of Cricket, Moral and Ethical dilemmas in Mankading, debates about the legality in bowling a Doosra are about as much relevance as a well-judged leave outside the off stump in an IPL game.

In their current stature, as per my opinion, no team across the world has the right to claim itself playing in the true spirit of the game, if at all such a thing existed. Every team is an offender in one way or other, be it with their delaying tactics, sledging, doctoring of pitches, not walking, ball tampering, claiming dubious catches, excessive appealing and many such notorieties.

To view any of these things in isolation and to blame the particular individual or the team is to miss the bigger picture, that of Cricket ceased to be played in a vaguely defined and almost confusing term called “Spirit”, but is susceptible to and played within the laws of what is acceptable and what is not, in the wake of increased public view, pressure, expectations and stakes. It is probably a cynical view, but is not far from reality and an adequate portrayal of the times we live in, where the end is almost always justified, the means be damned.

Cricket is no longer a gentlemen’s game probably because there aren’t (m)any playing it, and certainly because there aren’t any watching it.