da bet esporte： Graeme Smith has asked for more consistency in granting permission for runners, Andrew Strauss felt Smith could have done without one
da mrbet： Dileep Premachandran in Centurion28-Sep-2009England’s ultimately comfortable passage to the semi-finals of the ICCChampions Trophy was marred by a moment of controversy towards the end ofthe night at Centurion, when Andrew Strauss refused Graeme Smith a runner. Smith, whobatted 216 minutes in all after having spent a session in the field, wasclearly unhappy when AB de Villiers was asked to head back to thepavilion, and Mickey Arthur, the South African coach, was seen swearing infrustration. Smith was dismissed soon after for 141, and South Africaeventually fell 12 runs short of the 313 that would have given them amathematical chance of survival in the competition.”I was cramping quite badly and I requested a runner,” said Smith later.”Andrew spoke with the umpires and turned it down. He felt that if youscore a hundred, you’re going to be tired. From my perspective, it felt atouch inconsistent. Guys have got runners for cramps in the past, so thereneeds to be a degree of consistency there. This is the frustration that wehave.”Strauss’s take was obviously very different. “He asked me for a runnerbecause he was cramping,” he said. “The umpires were not particularly keento give him one. I felt that at the end of a long game, after a longinnings, you’re going to be tired. Cramping to a certain extent is apreparation thing. To a certain extent, it’s a conditioning thing. Ididn’t feel that he merited having a runner at that stage.”Smith insinuated that the Strauss decision may have had something to dowith the suggestions of softness that resulted in him recallingAngelo Mathews during England’s victory over Sri Lanka on Friday night.”I’m not going to sit here and slag Andrew and say that he should havedone this or that,” he said. “The decision rests with the umpires as well.From my perspective, it’s just about putting it behind me now. The thingI’ve learned from this game is that the world’s round. It’s going to comeback somewhere in the game, at some period of time in his captaincy. It’llbe interesting to see how he handles it again.”Strauss was of the view that the refusal of a runner had nothing at all todo with the run out-obstruction incident. “You just go with each situationas it comes,” he said. “I think the umpires were very uncomfortable withit as well. My personal view is that you shouldn’t get a runner forcramps, full stop.”When it was pointed out that batsmen had been allowed runners in the pastwhile suffering from cramps, he said: “That’s something for the ICC tolook at. I didn’t feel he was cramping that badly either. He was stillable to run. That was my view.”Despite the disappointment of defeat, Smith still found time to smile whenhe was reminded of the fact that Arjuna Ranatunga, the former Sri Lankancaptain, frequently asked for and was given runners. “I don’t know if Iwant to be likened to Arjuna,” he said. “I think I’ve worked quite hard inthe winter [laughs]. From our perspective, it was a crucial period of thegame. I was on the field for 95 overs and just felt it was inconsistent,that’s all.”
