| Human
rights, human wrongs
By S.R. Pathiravithana
From the time that cricket became a favourite sport in good old
queens country, the players called it the gentlemen's game while
some others called the players "the flannelled fools".
Then with the growth of the empire in which the sun never set, the
gospel of cricket spread wherever the game was played amongst soldiers,
tradesmen, government officials, settlers etc and later on given
over to the locals willingly or unwillingly to bat on.
Initially
Initially cricket was mostly played between England and
Australia followed by South Africa, the West Indies, India and New
Zealand and then Pakistan created after the division of the sub-continent.
In the last two decades the new entrants were Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe
and Bangladesh. However .during the latter part of the twentieth
century with the introduction of the shorter version of the game,
commercialism crept in. Thus transformed, this new rich game was
bursting at its seams and the administrators of the game brought
in new laws, new codes of conduct and a new breed of officials called
the match referees who were given the task of acting as the Custodians
of discipline on field.
West
Indian Conrad Hunte was the first match referee to reprimand a player
for misconduct when he found Pakistani fast bowler Aqib Javed during
the third Test at Old Trafford guilty of violation of code 2 and
3 and fined him 50% of his match fee. Besides Javed, Hunte served
reprimands on two other Pakistani players Javed Miandad and Intikhab
Alam during the same match.
Then
during the next fourteen years 29 other referees have booked cricketers
on 179 other occasions the latest being the incident involving Kumar
Sangakkara, Upul Chandana, and Thilakeratne Dilshan who were taken
to task by former South African cricketer Mike Proctor. Fining a
cricketer or reprimanding him for misconduct is most welcome but
can Mike Proctor be given full credit for his action at the Asia
Cup Final between India and Sri Lanka.
When
one goes through the list another significant factor is that out
of the 181 instances 90 instances involve the four Asian Nations
of Pakistan (37), India (35) Sri Lanka (16) and Bangladesh (2).
During the entire period of fourteen years the other seven nations
which include Kenya have been taken to task on only 91 occasions.
At this juncture one may step back and ponder. How come Asians ending
up at the receiving end. It is a well known fact that Australians
are famous or infamous for sledging. They made an art of it and
not many cricketers were spared. But, Australians have been booked
only on 25 occasions and England on 16 occasions and the West Indies
9 times.
Soft
pedalled
The other known factor is that match referees have also
soft pedalled issues. Not very long ago former West Indian cricketer
Clive Lloyd did not take to task English cricketer Nassar Hussain
after he had verbally abused Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan during
their last tour of Sri Lanka. Then came the Proctor-McGrath issue
where the latter went unscathed after a similar incident and then
a while ago Sri Lanka's own Ranjan Madugalle too let off Australian
Shane Warne .These are only a few examples, but the list is longer.
Punishment
The contention is that if a cricketer conducts himself
in contravention of the set rules he should be punished or even
officially admonished. However the rule should apply equally to
every cricketer irrespective of any consideration of the country
that he represents. But the Sri Lankan players also should have
known whom to pick on. Certainly not on an Indian cricketer for
the plain and simple reason that Indian Cricket have stood by Sri
Lanka cricket from the days of beyond. Maybe that they were provoked
or whatever it is it is best that one keeps his cool so that the
game goes on smoothly. |
