The Spirit Of Cricket
What It Says, And What It Means
This is a field guide to what the Spirit of Cricket really means in practice for cricket fans and ex-players who are now commentators:
These are the points which make up the Spirit of Cricket as written in the preamble to the Laws of Cricket:
Respect is central to the Spirit of Cricket.
1. You respect me by using only some of the laws when you compete against me or my team. No matter what I say or do, it is disrespectful of you to point to any law to show me precisely where I’m wrong. Precision and accuracy are against respect.
Respect your captain, team-mates, opponents and the authority of the umpires.
2. Except if you are an English player who has a newspaper column, or are speaking to the press after the day’s play in England. Nobody tells you this part.
Play hard and play fair.
3. If you feel you are beating me or my team, or if you feel I’m doing well, you may no longer compete as hard as you can. You must back off and only score runs or effect dismissals in ways I might find acceptable, and not merely under the law. If you don’t, you’re not playing fair. You must compete as I want. You must not question how I compete.
Accept the umpire’s decision.
4. See (2) above. Further, asking me to read the law so I might understand the umpire’s decision is against the Spirit. It doesn’t matter what the Law says. Under the Spirit, the imaginary version of the Laws which comes to my mind in the moment is as legitimate and applicable as the actual Law printed in the book. Like precision and accuracy, understanding is also against the Spirit.
Create a positive atmosphere by your own conduct, and encourage others to do likewise.
5. Make us feel good.
Show self-discipline, even when things go against you.
6. Be creative. Have fun with this one.
Congratulate the opposition on their successes, and enjoy those of your own team.
7. See (6). Like we do with the Laws, you can ignore the bits of this which you find inconvenient. It wouldn’t be within the Spirit of Cricket to take this Preamble literally.
Thank the officials and your opposition at the end of the match, whatever the result.
8. I’m beginning to repeat myself. See (7).
Cricket is an exciting game that encourages leadership, friendship and teamwork, which brings together people from different nationalities, cultures and religions, especially when played within the Spirit of Cricket.”
9. It brings them together the way the Romans brought gladiators together in the circus. It’s what I learnt in School. We used to be big on Ancient Rome in School. When they enter the circus with us, we must keep our guns loaded and ready, and we must tell them how it is unfair to use anything beyond traditional weapons of ancient Rome.
10. In summary, England should win. When that doesn’t happen, the Spirit of Cricket has been contravened. Remember that. Those Laws we made, well, they’re ours to use, and ours to ignore. Remember that too.
I've always found it difficult to get behind this England team, though was looking forward to watching Harry Brook. However the conduct has been beyond unbecoming, the commentary abysmal (with the exceptions of Tubby and Ponting) and the cricket played both brainless and pathetic. I thought bowling nothing but bouncers to Lyon was the low point, until the endless whingeing about Bairstow. It's meant to be the convicts whingeing... This team is simply embarrasing.
The “Spirit of Cricket” is bunkum and the MCC should stop peddling it and remove it from the preamble to the Laws of the Game. All sports are covered by rules and/or laws. They need to be crystal clear and applied by players and officials consistently. But cricket uniquely has the delusion that there are behavioural norms that transcend the Laws. It is, no doubt, derived from the “It’s not cricket” conceit of Victorian gentlemen. The problem is, of course, that whilst the Laws are codified the “Spirit” is subjective.
The current furore over the running out of Bairstow is a case in point. The Laws of cricket were applied and the umpires gave him out. End of the matter you’d think but no for some the “Spirit of Cricket” was breached. The very fact that there are two opposing camps on this emphasises the subjectivity. It’s a matter of opinion not a matter of fact.
The guardianship of the Laws of cricket is with a private members club (MCC) not with the game’s top administrators the “International Cricket Council”. This is an anachronistic absurdity. If you run cricket around the world (the ICC does) then surely you should also determine the game’s laws and rules?
Any parent knows that in disputes with their children the phrase “Because I say so” is used at the last resort. But you can’t do that in a world of clear regulations. You can’t pontificate that something is “against the spirit of cricket” when the Laws say it is allowed. Indeed the very phrase that something “may be allowed but it offends the spirit” is a silly conceit. So long as the “Spirit of Cricket” lingers around the game and its Laws it will be a source of confusion and disagreement. Time to grow up and dump it.