Random Cricket Photos Post 124




#RandomCricketPhotosThatMakeMeHappy

Dexter's 1993 Smog Prophecy

In 1992-1993, when England visited India, they had no idea about the magnitude of disaster they were going to be a part of. They got some of it when, in the first Test in Kolkata, they floundered the trial by spin miserably after being put to sword by Azhar's classic 182. India coasted home with eight wickets in hand. The 'Brownwash' had begun for the English.

Ted Dexter, the Italy born English Chairman of selectors, while dissecting his team's abysmal performance, put forward a reason for the loss that was dismissed by everyone with a chuckle.

The seemingly 'sour grapes' kind of reason put forward by Dexter was that England's defeat was to be attributed to Kolkata smog. He even went on to announce that he had commissioned a report into the impact of air pollution in Indian cities.

The subsequent inning defeats at Chennai and Mumbai discredited Dexter's claims even further and he attracted more mockery when he went on to voice his dislike for his players' scruffy appearance in the series review report.
Well, Dexter might have made a laughing stock of himself in 1993 but looking back at it all in 2019, as questions remain whether Bangladesh should be made to play in this Delhi smog or not, one can only wonder how beneficial a report he proposed to commission back in 1992 could have been.

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