Strauss is just an old softy

Andrew Strauss' second-ball dismissal on Tuesday would have been greeted with much glee by some people in these parts. They think he's a bully and bounder, you see, who got his comeuppance for refusing Graeme Smith a runner during his exhausting innings the other night.

In truth, Strauss is really a softy who may have been acting up for fear of being pushed around again by England's dressing room bully Andy Flower.

Flower is a Zimbabwean with no pretensions for being an English gentleman. A very fine cricketer in his day for a secondary team, he now finds himself in the anomalous position as England's team director, which is a posh name for team coach.
Whatever it is that coaches do, Flower apparently does it well enough for Strauss to respect it as central to his own performance as captain.
One gets the impression that one of Flower's priorities is to inject more of the mean streak into England's approach.

This may not sit well with Strauss who, based on appearances, seems like quite a proper chap. Earlier in this Champions Trophy tournament, he recalled the Sri Lankan Angelo Matthews because he believed he had been dismissed unfairly. This gesture was seen as a fine show of sportsmanship and seemed perfectly in keeping with Strauss's outlook on the game.

Flower, however, was not impressed. He said he respected his captain's decision but it was not one he would have made himself because he did not believe the dismissal unfair.

In England's next match, Smith, hobbling after reaching his century, asked for a runner. Strauss refused, which seemed a little at odds with what had gone before.

Did he have Flower in mind when he told Smith to battle on without help? Some think he did, but Strauss will no doubt say that this is not so.
His view against granting Smith a runner, he pointed out, was in keeping with the umpires' opinion that Smith was cramping and was therefore not entitled to one.

The ICC subsequently sided with both Strauss and the umpires, stating that substitutes will "only be permitted in cases of injury, illness or other wholly acceptable reasons", and that cramps were the result of fatigue which apparently does not count.

If the ICC had any sense of history it would know that another England captain, Peter May, once refused a runner for the West Indies' batsman Rohan Kanhai on the grounds that his knee was injured before the match began.

When it was pointed out to May that the problem was actually the result of cramps in the other knee, he apologised and allowed the runner.

Even if he was suckered, May did the right thing.
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