India’s gesture has spared the tour from major acrimony

Trent Bridge: The decision by India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni to recall Ian Bell after he was controversially run out was right for the game, right for cricket and certainly right for the good of the tour. In fact, it saved the tour.

Had India not recalled Bell, when he was on 137, it would surely have led to an ill-tempered, nasty series for the remainder of the tour: players at war and normally appreciative, sporting spectators could have turned bitter — against India.

Fortunately, common sense prevailed. The naïve but brilliant Bell was a lucky so and so for earning a sporting reprieve from India when he stupidly left his crease for a bowl of pasta when the game was still live; and he knows it.

But as Bell suggested after the day’s play, who knows how things might have turned out if India refused him a second chance?

“The right thing has been done,” he said. “You don’t know what could have happened in the next few Test matches or where you go from that. It’s nice to know that both teams are going to play very hard on the field, but fair as well.”

He added: “I think they’ll admit that there was something not quite right about the initial decision. But the way they handled the situation was fantastic. It was the right decision for the way we want to play this series, and how cricket wants to be played.”

If we take peek into the future and speculate on how events might have transpired had Dhoni opted to leave Bell in the pavilion after tea, then the crystal ball shows some unpleasant images.

The legendary and great Sachin Tendulkar scores his hundredth international century at Edgbaston in the third Test and is greeted by a deafening round of boos and jeers from a partisan Birmingham crowd who are renowned to be passionate supporters. Fans who have even intimidated the Australians down the years.

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Tendulkar raises his bat to the stadium and two thirds are jeering and throwing plastic beer cups onto the field, while the other third, the Indian contingent, bristle and protest aggressively at the reaction to the historic moment in cricket history. Such scenes could have led India to boycott the tour on safety grounds.

The fantastic entertainer that is Virender Sehwag returns from injury and is booed on scoring a century at The Oval. Sehwag is a player who would always be appreciated by English crowds in the same way that Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge were in the 1970s and 80s, even when they carving England apart.

These images are fictitious, thankfully, but certainly not mischievous, throwaway words. Events could have followed this path, but fortunately Messrs Dhoni, Fletcher and their confidants were sensible enough to steer this great series towards a different direction.

Relations have not always been the best in recent years between these sides, and the fact they disagreed over the use of the DRS was another potential for fuelling disagreement – as happened in the commentary box between former players Nasser Hussain and Ravi Shastri.

But ultimately a series that is deciding the best Test team in the world and with so many great players on show, it would have been a travesty for unnecessary fury to have taken hold and distracted a great, hard contest. Bravo India.

Listen to Anil Kumble as he lauds Dhoni’s call on Bell