The cricketing Codes Beyond Rules

Ikram Alikhil is young.He has played in the World Cup.He also has played Test cricket.He is a capable batsman and a wicket keeper. Yet aspects of cricket keep unfolding as mysteries being decoded.In Lucknow yesterday, he rushed out to congratulate Rahmat Sah, the batsman on the other end on reaching his half century.A natural response from an excitable young man but the ball was still in play and he was run out.Many years ago in early 1974, Bernard Julien patted down the last ball of the day in a test match and the non striker Alvin Kallicharan walked away only to see Tony Greig fielding at silly point knock down the stumps and appeal for a run out.As stumps had not been called, umpire Douglass Sang Hue gave him out.A furore erupted.What to speak of Alikhil in whose country hardly any cricket was then played, even Shai Hope who claimed the run out may not have heard of the incident. Yet at moments like these there are unwritten codes which as a cricketer you can follow as Walsh did in the 1987 World Cup, Vishwanath followed in the Centenary Test by recalling a batsman and India went on to lose a test but Vishwanath went up several notches in fans' esteem.