VVS Laxman fears cricket going football way with controversial coded signals strategy

Former Indian Test specialist VVS Laxman fears cricket is heading in football's direction with controversial coded signals strategy after the English team had adopted this strategy during the third and final T20I against South Africa at the Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town last week.

'Not the right thing': VVS Laxman

“Often in T20 cricket, if the captain needs to make a decision, he discusses it with the coach or the support staff or a senior player, and post that discussion, a captain usually comes to a decision. But if this thing (use of placard) forms a part of the rule, then I believe it is not the right thing, as you want the captain to fulfill his role. Otherwise, you don’t require a captain, and the team can be run from outside similar to football where the manager runs the team,” said Laxman while interacting on Star Sports show Cricket Connected.

READ: England Skipper Eoin Morgan Receives Coded Information On Field From The Dressing Room

What was the coded information all about?

It had so happened that while England were fielding in the first innings, the English team's analyst Nathan Leamon was seen sending a piece of coded information to the 2019 World Cup-winning skipper from the dressing room during the course of the game and it was just a matter of time before it went viral. 

While it is still unknown what kinds of messages are conveyed via this technique but,  what really stood out here is that series of letters and numbers were hung from the balcony of the reigning ODI world champions. The information was a combination of a letter and number i.e. 4E.

While it did create a lot of confusion initially, England's star limited-overs wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler decoded it during the post-match session. The elegant middle-order batsman explained that it was just a little bit of an experiment.

“It’s a little help, a suggestion, and what match-ups are going on. Eoin and Nathan work closely on analysis. It’s just a little bit of an experiment. Eoin is one of the best captains in the world, a fantastic, instinctive captain, and there’s a nice balance going on,” said Buttler while speaking to BBC.

READ: 'We're Definitely Going To Continue With It':Eoin Morgan On Receiving Signals From Analyst