By: Tarish Bhatt
When you have some like Rahul Dravid in the dressing room, it ought to make a lot of difference and it was on display during an ‘A’ team game in Chennai against South Africa.
The Rahul Dravid-coached India A team was batting when suddenly seven South Africa A players had to leave the field, owing to dehydration and stomach bug, and were hospitalized.
First, South Africa A video analyst, Hendrikus Coertzen took the field, when medium-pacer Mthokozisi Shezi left the field, to complete 11 players on the field.
“Six of them were down with food poisoning, while Quinton de Kock was dehydrated,” according to TOI. “Quinton had arrived only on Sunday morning and batted for over three hours which sapped all his energies.”
But, soon after Quinton de Kock left the field owing to dehydration, and to everyone’s surprise Mandeep Singh had to sport South Africa A jersey and took the field.
SA ‘A’ had someone new fielding for their side against Ind ‘A’ on Sunday. Talk about Spirit of Cricket @mandeeps12 https://t.co/Tdt9ABMAwA
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 10, 2015
This is not the way Mandeep Singh would have like to take the field, but it shows the essence of sportsmanship Rahul Dravid is streaming into the young Indian team.
When players in the international level seen losing temper on a number of occasions, this act of sportsmanship by India A team shows that cricket still is a gentlemen’s game.
Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also took a very little time in rescheduling South Africa A games and sent a release stating the same.
BCCI stated in the release: Due to unavoidable circumstances, the schedule of the ongoing Paytm ‘A’ tri-series has been revised.
Aug 10, 2015- India ‘A’ vs Australia ‘A’
Aug 11, 2015- Australia ‘A’ vs South Africa ‘A’
Harsha Bhogle Twitted: The essence of sport. India ‘A’ send out a sub for the opposition because they are helpless. Reschedule their game to let them recover. Nice.
