``Orchard had to give me out'' - Cullinan

JOHANNESBURG (South Africa) - Daryll Cullinan's ``fielding lapse'' when he was batting at Kingsmead on Wednesday night admits he was in the wrong when he plucked the ball out of the air and found himself only the second batsman in a limited-overs international history to take the long walk with ``handled ball'' against his name as the mode of dismissal.

It is something ``I shall not do again'' he told Mike Haysman, co-presenter with former South African and Northerns fast bowler Fanie de Villiers, on Extra Cover, South Africa's pay channel SuperSport (M-Net) popular weekly programme.

Haysman, a member of Kim Hughes' Oz rebel teams of the mid-1980s and former Northerns (and Transvaal - now Gauteng) top-order batsman, and De Villiers had an indepth discussion with the South African batsman about the incident, pulling him out of the team's fines meeting, which would mean he was liable for a double fine when he went back to the meeting. And knowing Bob Woolmer, the coach, some of the ``fines'' can become pretty tough.

``The decision was right,'' Cullinan admitted without any rancor and a display of maturity to the almost million viewers in South Africa. Cullinan said the ball had gone up and his immediate reaction was that ``it is going no where, take the ball an toss it back (to the bowler)'' at which point he realised ``I think then I gave it away for when I did put my hand up I thought 'Oh ... no, just what I done here? I've got this all wrong ...''

At which point Haysman suggested, jokingly to Cullinan, ``You looked' all guilty, Daryll ...''

``Technically speaking, the decision was right,'' Cullinan frankly admitted. ``I can't turn to Dave Orchard and say sorry, or whatever ... ``In fact my initial reaction was to throw it back. We've all been pretty good friends on the tour so far and ... well, an appeal was made (by Brian Lara) and the decision was correct ... ``

At which point De Villers asked his former teammate what the dressingroom reaction was when he got back.

``Well, there was this sort of stunned silence ... And I said to them ... 'Sorry guys, sorry about that. It's just one of the things that happen.' ...

``Had the ball been going toward my wicket I would have, more correctly, got between myself and the ball and attempted to knock it away ... with my bat.'' Haysman commented that at no stage did the ball appear as if would hit the stumps and then posed the question whether it has been a case of ``natural instinct'' emanating from net practice sessions. Cullinan took up the point with agreement.

``Yeah, it happens all the time. You see the guys play the ball down and pick up the ball and return it to the bowler ... Technically speaking, you do that in a match and if there's an appeal you can be given out as well. You could argue that the ball hadn't bounced, that it could have hit the footmarks.

``O know where I stand and I won't be as silly as that again,'' he admitted. None of the Windies fieldsmen or the bowler (Keith Arthurton) said anything to Cullinan, who then repeated the earlier comment of ``Oh ... what have I done here'' and saw Lara walk to Orchard.

``I saw them have words and Richie (Orchard) asked Brian do you want me to give him out?' and Brian said yes' and he (Orchard) had to do what he had to do and that's give me out, so I had to walk from there.

``Look Brian wasn't going to back down. You have to understand his situation. It was a tough match, two very competitive sides, one all in the series and he's well within his rights to appeal.

``So, at the end of the day I can't point fingers any anybody but myself,'' Cullinan admitted.