It's Always More Complicated

Shock horror over not-cricket in cricket cheating scandal!!!

A fielder at first slip was alleged to have clicked his fingers as the ball passed the batter’s bat, in an attempt to con the umpire into thinking that there had been an edge. The ball sank into the wicketkeeper’s gloves; bowler, keeper and fielder erupted in a full-throated appeal; and the umpire sent the disbelieving batter on his way for a duck.

Deuced unBritish what? We fancy that Raffles The Amateur Cracksman may have used going about the country to play in cricket matches as a cover for jewel-heists, but surely perish the thought that he should ever have played anything but a Straight Bat at the wicket? And as for what Lord Peter Wimsey would say -

But what is cricket? It’s one player hurling a dangerous projectile at another. An odd activity on which to base a moral code.

There is a cite to the rose-tinted literary tradition of village tradition, but notably absent is Kipling's scathing indictment of the 'flannelled fools at the wickets'. We do not think Rudyard was a cricketer: not surprising given his extreme myopia. Stalky and Co were notably cynical about the cricket-cult.