Tuesday 16 July 2013 13:29, UK
That was as good an Ashes Test match as I've ever seen. Listening to the players usually gives you a good indication and Alastair Cook said it was the most dramatic game he's ever played in so I would go along with that.
I was on commentary on Friday and I admit I was absolutely gobsmacked. The words just flowed out of my mouth as I said 'what's he doing?' I was trying to put a funny slant on it by talking about the audacity of it. His dad Chris allegedly texted him afterwards to ask how he kept his face straight! But I'm totally mystified as to why we're all talking about Stuart Broad. Just go on to YouTube and type in 'Aleem Dar and AB de Villiers' and watch that unravel. In a match against India, he hit it to first slip off a fast bowler and just stood there. Moving on from that point, I'm trying to work out the difference between a thick edge and a thin edge. In my own my mind there isn't one. I heard a guy spouting off on the radio that sometimes you don't know when you've hit the ball. I'm sorry, but you do. Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin didn't walk in this match so what are we having all this talk about Broad? If we want to have this debate then we should have been having it for the last 35 years. Players don't walk. They wait for the umpire's decision, even if they know that they've hit it. In this instance the umpire didn't see it and it was a genuine mistake. Clarke knows he needs to be more selective with his reviews so that those mistakes can be corrected. Why are we having this debate now? Where has it been for the last 35 years? It's just a good story for the newspapers. It completely baffles me why we're talking about one player. I've been shouting this from the rooftops since I started commentating. They're all at it. If Broad is going to get any sort of punishment over this then there should be quite a long queue in front of that judge.
