Ian Bell was just being selfish in the aftermath of being of having acted foolish and arrogant.
However, I can’t understand that what was Strauss doing going to the Indian dressing room asking for Bell’s recall! Did he go begging bowl in hand? Or did he go threatening them with dire consequences on and off the field if they didn’t recall Bell? Or was it that he & his team suddenly remembered that cricket has a ‘spirit of the game’ that they can mould according to their needs and flout it about for getting a decision reversed?
Not one of the many people discussing the incident in Sky studios said that Bell had been wronged. Almost all of them went out and said that Indian team’s appeal was not against the spirit of the game. Nasser Hussain accepted he would have acted in the same way as Dhoni in appealing for the decision. English hero Ian Botham was clear in his belief that Bell should have gone. Still, Strauss had the balls to go into the Indian dressing room and ask for the recall!
Can’t figure how he’ll sleep with his decision tonight. It was clear from Bell’s behaviour that he knew he was out and that the protest could get him out. He acted in a manner to incite the situation and use the crowd to force Indians to recall him. However, I expected Strauss to remember that Cricket isn’t really a Gladiator’s arena – crowd doesn’t decide what’s wrong and what’s now. My disappointment is in Strauss, for I expected better of him.