Horror at Lord’s: Commentary from behind slips!

Chandigarh, June 2

An on-field commentator positioned just behind the slips while an international match is on, that too at Lord’s in London? The traditionalists at Lord’s would have choked on their gin and tonic. Luckily, though, there were probably no traditionalists at Lord’s to witness this horror last night because it was only a T20I match, between a West Indies XI and a World XI.
Nasser Hussain was the on-field commentator in question, positioning himself behind the slips for a brief while during the match; at one point, he was technically at first slip, only a bit deeper than conventional. It was all in fun, but a commentator on the field, right behind the slips, during an international match did upset a few people. A times, he was right behind the wicketkeeper.
“Nasser Hussain, on commentary, at first slip for the opening over,” wrote Australian cricket writer Adam Collins on Twitter. “This is why these games — wonderful as they are — should never have international status.”
The money raised from the match — called the Hurricane Relief T20 Challenge — would be used to repair the cricket infrastructure damaged in the West Indies by hurricanes Irma and Maria eight months ago. But the International Cricket Council gave the match an ‘international’ statue, which means that the players’ runs, wickets and catches would be included in their international statistics. The “charitable” nature of the match, and the fact that it wasn’t between national teams, contributed to the fun atmosphere at Lord’s — and led to Hussain briefly doing commentary from behind the slips.
West Indies XI batted first and scored 199/4, based on contributions from Evin Lewis (58 off 26), Marlon Samuels (43 off 22) and Denesh Ramdin (44 off 25). World XI lost by 72 runs, bowled out for 127, with Kesrick Williams taking 3/42 from 3.4 overs.