Batsmen should be allowed to tactically retire out if they're spent It boiled down to England needing 23 off their last seven balls, with a very tired Hales on strike. He had to get a boundary to keep England in touch, so that Morgan could start the last over with 17 or 19 to win. The ball passed outside offstump and Hales did not even get a bat on it. The next ball he faced, in the final over, he was out - in the technical as well as physical sense. But supposing Hales, either of his own accord or at the command of his captain Stuart Broad, had "retired out" with 23 required off seven balls and Jos Buttler, say, had replaced him. Hales wasn't injured and he wouldn't have been allowed to bat again. Would that have been in the spirit of the game? Sir Jack Hobbs, on reaching one of his 197 first-class centuries, would sometimes give his wicket away to the most deserving bowler. Gooch, on a cold April day at Fenner's when confronted with an amateur student attack, presumably couldn't find one. In any event, nobody said Hobbs or Gooch was violating the spirit of the game then - or batsmen who, after making a huge score, walk down the wicket, deliberately miss the ball and don't try to get back. Assisted suicide is not legal in the UK but the equivalent has always been permitted in cricket: the batsman can get out if he wants to. The Australians discussed this issue during the early stages of the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, and decided that a batsman retiring out would contravene the game's spirit. But they also reckoned that a batsman who was "in," however knackered, was likely to be more effective than a new batsman. Pragmatism also had its say. I don't think such a tactic would be against the spirit. I expect professional cricketers to do whatever they can to win: it would be a limp and less interesting game if they did not. I expect them to take advantage of the laws if there is nothing specifically to stop them. And it is then up to the lawmakers at MCC to close the gap: for example, to penalise a side in which a batsman "retires out" by docking them five penalty runs. This is how cricket evolves - and remains so fascinating.