Talismanic KP Under Scanner

    Recent six hitting by the star English batsman Kevin Pietersen has landed him into "controversies" for playing a so called "foul" shot. The bad word spread like wildfire in the sporting arena and finally after a lot of hue and cry, ICC has given him a clearance. 

    If Pietersen's reverse-sweep for six off Muralitharan in a Test at Edgbaston two years ago was not sensational enough. KP changed his stance twice against Styris, taking advantage of less fielders and shorter boundary on the off-side by effectively making it the leg side and slog-sweeping the ball for six. A change up to get more and so called easy runs.

    No one before had used a reverse sweep and changed grip to smite the ball over the off-side boundary as Pietersen did. The shot was tried by Mike Gatting in 1987 Woeld Cup with no promise. Andy Flower and even the great Sachin Tendulkar have played the innovative shots but none with such arrogance and results.

    The "switch shot" that he has used to great effect has added another dimension to the batsmen's armour. But as usual the use of the innovative shot made a lot of people complain peevishly about the element of fairness to the bowlers and the game itself. Pietersen or any batsman for that matter has every right to play any kind of shot he wants to, especially after the "clearance" from ICC that is needed for every bat of an eyelid in Cricket.

    But shot rather than being appreciated was scrutinized. So was the flick over the keeper popularized as Douglas Marillier shot because it took advantage of the fielding constraints. Is'nt that an integral part of batting -finding gaps, targetting areas for more runs? It must be realized that necessity is mother of all inventions. The slower ball came into picture to fox the batsman, so did Googlies and Doosras. And the batsman found another way to outsmart the bowling opposition.

    If Peiterson has to be criticized for the "switch" shot then so should be the faster bowlers who bowl slower ones. Bowlers like Murali would then be punished for bowling a beautiful Doosra and bowlers like young Piyush Chawla who balls a GOOGLY every ball would not be able to ball at all.

    This is a way too much fuss about a beautiful, albeit not innovative as most would agree, change up by KP. Later on in cricket, even fielders may be punished for throwing underarms or not with their natural throwing arm. It is like a denial to the acceptance to the unorthodox capability of a sportsman.

    The people are always stubborn on accepting changes but the ICC has for once taken a good step in accepting this change. At the end of the day, it is a competition between Bat and Ball and it will bring in new innovations and furthur innovations to tackle them.