Cricket's spirit lives: Wiaan Mulder's humility reveres the game's legacy

What South African Captain Wiaan Mulder did is out of character with the times, but it shows humility and reverence for the spirit of this great game

Cricket, a team game no doubt, has enormous scope for an individual outshining the rest. This characteristic of cricket, the preponderance of numbers speaking for players’ performance, somewhat sets it apart from other team games. A cricketer’s tour de force goes into record books in statistical hierarchy. And there is nothing unsportsmanlike in being ahead of others on any count. So had South African Captain Wiaan Mulder broken the great Brian Lara’s record of the highest runs in a Test innings, no moral calumny would have fastened on him for doing it. Yet he declared the innings when he was just 34 runs away from reaching the apogee because Lara, he felt, deserved to be where he was. And by doing this he made many recall the sporting gesture of Lara himself. Some 31 years ago, the West Indian declared himself out in a Test in India when he was nine runs away from 100. Sunil Gavaskar, then a newspaper writer, applauded the action, saying: “Well done, Brian!” 

Gavaskar had to face hostility for breaking Don Bradman’s record of the highest number of centuries, 29, in Test cricket. For a long time, there was speculation as to whether he would or should do it. After he equalled and broke Sir Don’s record in the same series, against a very strong West Indian team in 1983, a great Australian cricketer remarked: “It is a sin to even think of breaking Bradman’s record.” What could Gavaskar do otherwise? Play on without centuries for the rest of his career? 

Gavaskar’s record too has gone long since. 

Speaking of Bradman, another Indian cricketer, B B Nimbalkar, came close to breaking the Australian’s record of the highest runs in an innings in first-class cricket. Bradman’s was 452, and when Nimbalkar in a domestic match reached 443, the opponent, fearing that an uncelebrated cricketer would glory himself in this feat of breaking the record of the world’s all-time greatest batsman, conceded the match and left the field.

 

The record of 452 could not stand up to the changeableness of time. The legendary Hanif Mohammed broke it, and his too was made a speck in the dust by  guess who. Brian Lara. 

 

Some records, alas, are virtually unbreakable. The first that comes to mind is Jim Laker’s 19 wickets in a Test, back in the 1950s, against the Australians. The second, though not so invincible, is Sydney Barnes’ 49 wickets in a series (it was a four-Test series) more than 100 years ago. Jack Hobbs’s record of the highest number of first-class centuries too stands for about 100 years, perhaps because players these days do not take domestic cricket seriously. However, it is surprising that Bradman’s record of the highest runs in a series (974, against England in 1930) is there like a rock even today, when triple centuries are plenteous. But his average of 99.94? The wait to see it broken has to be long.

 

Records can be seen in various ways. The quickest 100 can be in terms of the number of balls faced. Here Sir Vivian Richards lost his top position some years ago after holding it for about 30 years. But in terms of minutes, the record, set in 1921, is with Jack Gregory, better-known as a bowler who, with Ted McDonald, formed cricket’s first fast-bowling pair.

 

Neville Cardus’ famous line— the scoreboard is an ass— seems outdated in this day and age when a cricketer’s worth is largely the person’s brand value. The heft of a record lies not just in the awe it evokes and also in the money it brings. In the light of this, it is palpable that what Mulder did is out of character with the times.

 

In Australia in the 1940s, it was a different Barnes, Sidney Barnes, who threw away his wicket when he was batting at 234 because at that cricket ground it was Bradman who held the record with the same score. Barnes did not want to go past Bradman. Instead he wanted to see his name with him. For him, it was a matter of pride with self-expression. For Mulder, it is humility and reverence for the spirit of this great game. Well done, sir!