Former Australian batsman Ian Chappell recalls Sunil Gavaskar telling him that when batting against Pakistan, the Indian opener would occasionally appear to bend down and pick up the ball to hand to a fielder before plucking grass instead.
The act of passing the ball without the approval of the fielding side is prohibited in cricket under Law 37.4. It exists to avoid ‘obstructing the field’ occurrences in which batters, under the guise of assisting the fielding side, prevent going out.
It made headlines lately when England batter Hamza Shaikh was sent off against Zimbabwe in the Under-19 World Cup for picking and passing the ball after playing a defensive shot. The fielding side appealed, and the umpires upheld it, sparking a controversy on social media, with some calling it against the’spirit of cricket’.
“I said to Sunil Gavaskar, he’d retired by this stage, he was commentating…” Chappell told Wide World of Sports on Monday. “I said to him ‘Sonny, did you ever touch the ball when you were batting?’ He said ‘never, except occasionally against Pakistan. I’d be at the non-strikers end, they’d play the ball back and it was stopped just near me. And I’d bend down as if I was going to pick the ball up, then I’d pluck a bit of grass.”
Ian Chappell
Ian Chappell Added:
“There were two blokes in the opposition who said ‘come on old man, pick the ball up’ – Javed (Miandad) and Sarfraz (Nawaz) that’s the two. He said ‘I knew if I touched the ball, one of them would appeal!”
Ian Chappell
Since the incident with Shaikh, numerous hitters have avoided picking up the ball.
Ian Chappell’s childhood story of his father’s view on obstructing the field
Ian Chappell stated that he learned the rule when he was 10 years old while watching his father, Martin, play in a local tournament in Australia. A hitter against Martin’s team was called out for blocking the field, but he continued to bat by leveraging his seniority.
“In the car going home, Martin said to me, ‘what did you think of the decision?’ I said ‘the batsman’s out, you don’t touch the ball with your hand when you’re batting’,” Chappell recalled. “Martin said to me, and I’ll never ever forget his words ‘I never ever want to see you get out that way’ and I never did.”
Ian Chappell
Ian Chappell also dismissed the “spirit of cricket” discussion as nonsense, stating that players should concentrate on playing by the rules and ignoring any extraneous “crap”.
