“As all true gentlemen cricketers know, only natural substances such as sweat or saliva can be legally used as a polishing agent, although the odd use of ‘Vaseline’ or ‘Brylcreem’ is often at the centre of a ball tampering controversy. “ And, as rule 41.3.2 of the ‘Laws of Cricket.’ clearly states : “It is […]
Tag: cheating
How to ‘cheat’ at sport without really ‘cheating’ – part 3: Grunting
Our previous Improbable article in this series examined the use of placebos – we now look at grunting. Though several sports tolerate (or even encourage) grunting as part of normal play, some have complained that it can be used as a deliberate and unfair distraction of one’s opponent(s). With regard to tennis for example, see: […]
How to ‘cheat’ at sport without really ‘cheating’ – part 2: Placebos
In the previous item in this series Improbable looked at the question of whether ‘praying to win’ at sports might be ‘unsporting’. One aspect (which wasn’t mentioned) is a possible scenario whereby those who pray to win might gain an advantage by a kind-of ‘Divine Placebo’ effect – that’s to say they might try just […]
How to ‘cheat’ at sport without really ‘cheating’ – part 1: Praying
“Ajax, through Athena’s spite, slipped upon some offal that was lying there from the cattle which Achilles had slaughtered in honor of Patroklos, and his mouth and nostrils were all filled with cow dung.” The account above is from The Iliad – in which Homer relates how Odysseus prays to the goddess Athena to request […]