2 Aug 2011

Bell clanger takes toll

12:16 pm on 2 August 2011

A former England captain Michael Atherton says Ian Bell's controversial "non dismissal" during the second test against India subverts the laws of the game and has nothing to do the so-called spirit of cricket.

Bell was run out from the last ball before tea on the third day at Trent Bridge after he walked off assuming a shot had gone for a boundary.

Atherton says that was Bell's mistake, not India's, because he forgot the first rule taught to young batsman: don't leave your crease while the ball is still live.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni later withdrew the appeal but Atherton says while the Indian captain's sportsmanship has been applauded he'd have been well within his rights to insist Bell was out.

And he says if anyone has brought the spirit of cricket into question, it's Bell for deciding the ball had reached the boundary, the over had been bowled and it was the tea break, all decisions for umpires, not batsmen.