The former International Cricket Council (ICC) umpire Dickie Bird would like to see the match referee permit Sachin Tendulkar to be present at the coin toss in his last two Test matches.
by BIPIN DANI
“Sachin Tendulkar is an international icon and he should be allowed to toss the coin in his last two Test matches”, said Bird. “There is no harm if this procedure is followed in these two Tests (against West Indies)”.
The MCC’s Law 12 .4 only allows the two captains to discharge the duty of tossing the coin, however there are a few instances of players, and not captains, attending the toss.
“Even Sachin can be asked to accompany Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and toss the coin on the first day of both the Test matches”, Bird added. “He can thus lead the team while coming out to field and if I were to officiate in these matches, I certainly would have allowed this to happen”.
“Kapil Dev, who was considering himself to be unlucky with the toss, once sent Gavaskar out instead”, informs Sudhir Vaidya, the noted cricket statistician. “Rahul Dravid was also involved in such an incident”.
Whoever goes to toss coin in the Eden Gardens on Wednesday with West Indies captain, Darren Sammy, the 11-gram gold coin will be handed over to the master-blaster after the toss ceremony, according the CAB official.
“The one side of the coin will have Sachin Tendulkar’s photo and the other side of the coin will have either India flag or the photograph of Eden Gardens. The coin will be handed over to Sachin Tendulkar”, the official added.
Sachin Tendulkar will not be able to keep the coin of his farewell Test on his home ground at Wankhede Stadium as the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has announced it will be retained by them.
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Bipin Dani
He has toured UAE, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Malaysia, to name a few, and contributes to a large number of newspapers in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
His twitter bio reads: Eat cricket stories, drink cricket stories, sleep cricket stories.
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