So this was the week that Zimbabwe's cricketers probably put themselves out of the Carlton and United finals, due mainly to their own erratic performances, especially in the field. Like many another side in world cricket these days, they seem to find consistency beyond them.

International cricketers the world over these days are perhaps overworked. Ten or more Test matches, thirty or more one-day internationals – some players spend perhaps 25 per cent of the days in a year on the international playing field. This may not sound much compared to other jobs, but few other jobs require a person to perform for hour after hour in full public gaze, both within the ground and on television, and involve such stress in so many different ways. Only the players themselves can fully understand the pressures involved in their chosen lifestyle, and there must be days when they just don't have the energy to perform their best.

In 1968 English batsman Ken Barrington was forced to retire with a Test career batting average of 58 after a heart attack brought on mainly by stress. He played ten to twelve Tests a year and no one-day internationals, and went on one extended tour a year. Leisurely stuff compared to the hectic merry-go-round of international cricket today.

The Zimbabwean players may well be tired, which may help to explain their erratic performances. Yet they are only halfway through an eleven-month tour. In the last five months they have played in Zimbabwe, Sharjah, India, New Zealand and now Australia, all with differing conditions. They return home to play in a concentrated Logan Cup programme, which is great in theory, but in practice probably the last thing most of them want as they face three touring teams in four months at home.

For the young players new to it, it will be both exciting and tiring. For the more experienced, it will be less exciting but just as tiring, as more responsibility rests on their shoulders. One just hopes it will not shorten the careers of such valuable players as Andy Flower and Heath Streak as they play for month after month with very few breaks from cricket or travelling of more than two or three days.

It must be a very difficult task for the Zimbabwe Cricket Union to strike the right balance when offering or accepting tours involving the national side. For all these tours bring in lots of valuable foreign currency, mainly from television rights nowadays, which can be used to pay the players and develop the cricket in what the politically correct might call an economically challenged country. Somehow we need to make the most of the golden eggs while still looking after the goose that lays them.

THAT DISPUTED CATCH

A certain incident in the one-day match between Zimbabwe and Australia last weekend caused much discussion. Australian batsman Ricky Ponting drove a ball from Mluleki Nkala powerfully, only for Stuart Carlisle at short extra cover to knock the ball up and claim a brilliant catch.

Carlisle and the Zimbabwean players all believed it was a genuine catch, and they are not very good actors: it is generally easy to deduce how genuine their appeals are. The television commentators all appeared to believe it was genuine. The umpires understandably could not be certain. The replays were unfortunately not completely clear. So the green light was flashed to signal Ponting `not out', which was surely an error. In these circumstances it should have been the white light, which indicates that a definite decision could not be made.

According to one of the commentators, the decision should have been passed back to the umpires. Despite what he implied, the only fair decision under such circumstances has to be `not out'. The benefit of the doubt has to be given to the batsman, and there was obviously doubt otherwise the third umpire would not have been consulted in the first place.

What can be done if neither the umpires nor the television camera can give a definite decision? Well, in the old days before cricket became ultra-professional, often the batsman in such a situation would ask the fielder if it was a genuine catch and, if the answer were in the affirmative, he would walk. It didn't happen all the time, but it was one of the conventions of what was supposedly a gentleman's game that this was the thing to do. Even Australians did it at times!

I remember in 1991/92, just before Zimbabwe gained Test status, an Australia B team toured Zimbabwe. In one match at Harare Sports Club, Australian Tom Moody drove a ball back to bowler Mark Burmester, who took it low down. The umpires were unable to judge whether it had been caught fairly, so Moody asked the bowler the question and on receiving an affirmative answer he walked. I have been a supporter of Tom Moody ever since for his rare act of sportsmanship.

On the other hand, I read of how Ian Chappell, on a personally unsuccessful tour of South Africa (the record books would seem to indicate the Johannesburg Test of 1969/70) snicked a ball that was taken on the bounce by Tiger Lance in the slips. Chappell turned, asked "Did you catch it?" and walked on receiving a positive reply. When his team-mates queried it with him, Lance apparently replied, "He didn't ask if it bounced first."

Ponting chose not to ask Carlisle and he chose not to walk. The Zimbabweans were understandably most aggrieved. Commentator Michael Holding put his finger on the problem when he said, "There are too many cheats involved nowadays."

It will no doubt be an unanswered question, but I will still ask, "Is this the way they want to play the game?" It would seem that it is. No doubt in theory the players would like to take part in a game where cheating is barred by universal consent, and they are highly unlikely to be given out wrongly or cheated of wickets through umpiring errors or batsmen who refuse to walk. In practice, so much depends on individual success that virtually all if them will stand their ground if there is any chance of being given not out, and will appeal if they think they have a chance of claiming a wicket through dubious means.

It is the captains who would have the best chance of cleaning the game up – legislators and technology cannot do everything. But it would be an effort, and it would at times be detrimental to their sides' interests, so why bother? I suppose we could call it `mild' cheating, but to deprive a fellow professional of an innings or of a deserved wicket is definitely cheating. Unfortunately, the modern game accepts it.

Perhaps one day we will have a great cricketer of real stature and a real appreciation of the traditions of the game who, as captain of his country, will make it his purpose to clean up these tarnished images of the game. Forty years ago, Richie Benaud did so as captain of Australia. About thirty years ago, if I remember correctly, some of the Currie Cup teams in South Africa had an agreement to this effect in matches among themselves.

Probably Steve Waugh is the only captain at the moment with the power to take the lead in this direction – which is most ironic, as he is one of those most frequently named, for stretching the spirit of the game to the limit, of taking international cricket to the brink of total warfare. We cannot expect any help from that direction. The morality appears to have gone out of modern cricket, at least at international level. We can only be grateful when it appears at lower levels, even in the first-class game sometimes.

Last year's Logan Cup competition in Zimbabwe was like a breath of fresh air, except when Mashonaland, with a considerable number of international players, were involved. The other four teams consisted mostly of young players or even unpretentious club cricketers, who went out there to play hard, enjoy themselves and respect their opponents. They resented the niggling, the at times provocative behaviour and excessive appealing of several of the Mashonaland players. Otherwise it was cricket played in the true traditions of the game, and it was a pleasure to play, to watch and to report. Let us hope that those international players who take part in it this season can forget the cynicism of the Test arena and enter once again into the true spirit of the game.

IN THIS ISSUE

With the start of the school year, we are now receiving a number of reports and previews from some of the high schools around the country. Thanks to all those cricket masters who contributed, despite their crushing work loads, and we hope that the majority who have not yet done so will make the time.

Next week we hope to include an interview with Henry Olonga, back in Zimbabwe and currently taking a break from cricket to concentrate on fitness, and we await a report on the Under-19 tour to South Africa by manager Win Justin-Smith.

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