Tony Becca

When I was a boy, cricket was the game of gentlemen - or so it was said. Cricket was the game, particularly of rural folks, and of all the games I played, or attempted to play in those days and long before I became a teenager, cricket was the one I was encouraged to play by my father and my mother.

Football, in those days, was considered too rough and on top of that football, in those days, was not a 'nice' game, certainly not when compared to the more gentle and sophisticated game of cricket - the game which, probably because of less body contact, did not lead to so many injuries, intentional or unintentional, and therefore to so many quarrels and fights.

Today, however, things have changed and things have not only changed to the extent where in the case of a batsman he is covered all over, from head to toe, with a helmet and a visor, chest guard, arm guard, thigh guard and pads, but also to the extent that there are now not only two umpires to decide who is out and who is not, there is also a third umpire - a man armed with television replays to determine, in some cases, who is really out and who is not.

Match referee

On top of that, there is also a match referee whose job, mainly, is to deal with problems on the field, including unsporting behaviour such as dishonesty.

Today the term "that is not cricket" is almost out dated, almost dead and buried. What was not cricket in years gone by is now cricket.

Things have changed so much in cricket and in football that cricket is now, to an extent, where football was years and years ago and football is now, to an extent, where cricket was years and years ago.

Whereas years ago cricketers would cheer each other, including the opposition, for something well done - for a good stroke, a good delivery, a brilliant bit of fielding, and, most importantly, for an innings well played and for a good bowling performance - whereas footballers would challenge a referee's call or gather around a referee threateningly when a goal was scored by the opposition, and whereas years ago it was more likely, and definitely so, that referees would be stoned, that the car tyres of a football referee would be punctured, and that it was a football referee and not a cricket umpire, would have had to run for his life - today that is not so.

Today, it is almost a u-turn.

A few weeks ago, for example, during a Test match between Australia and India in Sydney, the mistakes by the umpires were such that losers, India, so it was written, threatened to boycott the remaining matches in the series if one of the umpires was not replaced for the next Test. And for the first time in its history the ICC, contrary to custom, bowed and the gentleman, the most senior and for a long time the man rated as the best umpire in the world, was removed.

Racial abuse

During that same Test match there was a charge of racial abuse against an Indian player. The Indian player was found guilty by the match referee. India, again, so it was written, threatened to boycott the remaining matches of the series and after an appeal, the Indian player was all but forgiven - the charge reduced from racial abuse to abusive language, his original three-match ban and a fine of 75 per cent of his match fee reduced to only 50 per cent of his match fee.

If those incidents were not evidence enough of how cricket, if not football, has changed, over the weekend - in a match between Derby County and my beloved Tottenham Spurs, my favourite English team from the days of Danny Blanch-flower, Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Smith in the late 1950s, through others like Allan Mullery, Martin Peters, Garth Crooks, Ossie Ardilles and Ricky Villa, Gary Lineker, Chris Waddle, David Ginola, and Jurgen Klinsman, Glen Hoddle, and Paul Gascoigne - there was evidence enough to show, to underline how much football has changed.

Showing concern

It is commonplace these days, and especially so in the professional leagues of Europe, to see a player helping a player - whom he had just fouled - to his feet or patting him on the head or on the shoulder before running into position. It is also commonplace to see footballers showing concern, team-mate or not, for an injured player.

In a hard-fought match on Saturday, the score was 1-0 in favour of Spurs. Spurs were on the attack and Jermaine Jenas, I believe, drove the ball towards goal. The Derby goalkeeper, Roy Carroll, dived to his right and pushed the ball back into play. Dimitar Berbatov, I believe, drove towards goal, Carroll dived, this time to his left, pushed the ball around the foot of the post for a corner and with the cheers echoing around the packed stadium, Robbie Keane, the captain of Spurs, ran up to Carroll, and with a broad smile, patted the goalkeeper on the shoulder, put his arm around him and then kissed him on the cheek.

Well done

It was a simple gesture, it was Keane's way of saying, not to a colleague, but to a fellow player - to a fellow professional, to someone who loves the sport just as he does, to someone who makes his living from the sport just as he does, and to someone who had just excelled - "well done".

They never, not in my memory, used to kiss each other in cricket, bu that was not what football used to be in the good old days, that was what cricket used to be, and ironically, it was a gesture like that, a pat on the buttocks of an Australian player by an Indian player after receiving a good delivery from the Australian, that caused the explosion, most of it, in Sydney.

Instead of saying, "that is not cricket" - as we used to say years ago - maybe we should now be saying "that is not football".