Sports
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The broader picture of Chris Broad By
Marlon Fernandopulle Justin
Langer was clearly seen flipping the bails while walking across
the stumps after the end of an over. Subsequently the Australian
players appealed for a hit-wicket decision against the batsman who
was Hashan Tillekaratne. The decision was put to the third umpire
Peter Manuel who correctly decided that Tillekaratne was not out. At
the official hearing match referee Chris Broad completely exonerated
Justin Langer from the charges that were brought against him. The
action of Broad came as a surprise not only to the Sri Lankan players
but also to the millions of television viewers who watched Langer
deliberately flick the bail off the stumps and the Australian players
appeal for hit wicket. Whatever
the reasons maybe, a look at the television replays suggest that
it was a deliberate act, and if it was so, does'nt the appealing
by the Australian players amount to cheating? Cheating according
to the ICC code of conduct for players is a level 4 offence. The
penalty for such an offence is a suspension of either 5 test matches
or 10 ODIs. It's
a shame that the match referee who had an eagle eye to spot the
kink in Muralitharan’s doosra has turned a blind eye on this
disgraceful act by an Australian player. This
newspaper has pointed out in the past the manner in which the ICC
officials conduct proceedings in a biased manner leaning towards
the Australians and the Englishmen. On one such instance the ICC
Corporate affairs manager Mr Brendon McClements accused the writer
for making such statements as they were not backed up by facts.
We replied Mr McClements giving him the facts citing a couple of
true incidences. What has happened today is another example of how
bias the ICC match officials are towards the Australians. It's
time that SLC takes up these matters with the highest authority
at the ICC and expose these deliberate acts by certain individuals
who are not only tarnishing the image of countries and players,
but also bringing the game to disrepute by their own actions. Broads
appointment questionable! The
ICC should also have a more stringent process when they recruit
match referees in future. Chris Broad has been reported to have
been fined sterling pounds 500 for smashing the stumps in a test
match and warned on several other times for showing dissent during
his playing days at a time when there were no match referees or
a code of conduct for players. In addition Broad was also heard
to have made questionable comments on Muralitharan’s action
when commentating for BBC's talk sport during Englands tour of Sri
Lanka in 2001. Is it right for the ICC to appoint these men as elite
match refrees? Broads
appointment by the ICC for the Sri Lanka -Australia one day series
was mysterious. An ICC media release in January named the ICC elite
umpires and Mike Procter as the match referee for the Sri Lanka
-Australia one day and test series. However in another ICC media
release in March (a few days before the start of the test series)
the ICC replaced Mike Proctor with Chris Broad and made a change
in the ICC umpires replacing S. Venkataraghavan with Dave Orchard
for the test series. In this release the ICC ensures to put a foot
note indicating the change to the elite umpires, but remains dumb
on the sudden change of the match referees appointment which in
fact came as a surprise to the players. These deliberate acts by the ICC has given rise to speculation among Sri Lankans that the reporting of Muralitharan by Broad has something more to it. Muttiah Muralitharan is more than a world class off spinner to the millions of cricket crazy Lankans. Chris Broad has opened a can of worms. His action has hurt a nation. Thus it's upto Sri Lanka Cricket to do whatever possible to put to rest the current controversy and ensure that their champion bowler is protected in the future. |
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