by Arunabha Sengupta
Johannesburg 1998.
That was the only Test match on the tour in which West Indies showed some mettle. They lost by four wickets, after which the series became painstakingly one-sided.
In any case, it was the second West Indian innings and Ridley Jacobs was carrying on an admirable fight. Jacques Kallis was bowling and Pat Symcox was stationed in short fine leg. The West Indian wicketkeeper glanced a delivery slightly square and the off-spinner lumbered after it. As the ball neared the boundary rope, he was on the verge of reaching it.
The area between the boundary rope and the advertising boards were manned by security policemen, some of them accompanied by sterling members of the K-9 squad. And as Symcox chased the ball, it headed towards a tall, dark and handsome German Shepherd who obviously wanted to join in the fun. The eyes had lit up as the ball rolled briskly towards him, and he got up from his sitting position and started moving forward.
Symcox noticed him late. And the moment he did, he forgot the ball and veered away in a sidewards direction, as far away from the dog as possible, in a speed about three times as fast as his chase so far. It was only the kindly intervention of the policeman that restrained the enthusiastic canine and allowed the ball to be retrieved.
It was the last ball of the over, and Symcox was to bowl from the other end. He walked gingerly to the wicket, having still not recovered from his harrowing experience. Visibly shaken, he handed his cap to umpire Cyril Mitchley, and said, “The dog almost bit me.”
Pat came the answer. “He’s lucky he didn’t. He might have contracted rabies.”
The comment was caught on the stump microphone, and had the commentators in splits, Robin Jackman wondering how the dog might have fared with a mouthful of Pat Symcox.
Cyril Mitchley was a decent wicketkeeper who played eight times for Transvaal B and scored 66 on first-class debut. But, he is more renowned as an umpire of 26 Tests and 61 ODIs. In 1992 he pressed the button to declare Sachin Tendulkar run out as the first ever third-umpire in Test cricket. He also raised his finger twice to give two leg before decisions in the Dominic Cork hattrick at Old Trafford in 1995.
Cyril Mitchley was born on 4 July 1938.