KOLKATA: As the five-day meeting of the International Cricket Council (ICC) gets to the business end on Wednesday and Thursday, foremost on agenda will be upgrading the existing Code of Conduct for players. The Cricket Committee led by Anil Kumble is likely to do a full review of the current practice of awarding only demerit points and fines. Express understands that more severe punishments could be proposed, which might see players banned for at least a match if they threaten to bring the spirit of the game into disrepute.
In the aftermath of the Nidahas Trophy in Colombo, where a few Bangladesh players got away without even a fine after threatening to walk out during a match, and due to incidents in the South Africa-Australia series, ICC CEO Dave Richardson had admitted that a review of the Code of Conduct was on the cards. In ICC circles, there is an admission that some of these recent incidents have dented cricket’s reputation. Authorities feel it has become necessary to send out a message that such behaviour won’t be tolerated. However, as favoured by many former players, ICC reckons the time is not ripe to introduce yellow or red cards as on-the-spot sanctions.
The idea behind introducing such cards was that they would prompt captains to exercise control over players since such punishments would have a bearing on the match. But ICC’s top brass is not convinced this will put an end to acts of misconduct. They believe it would create more controversy as a wrong call on part of the umpire (these won’t be reviewed) might impact the outcome, which is not desirable at the Test Championship beginning next year. Chances of controversy are also high because in case an umpire chooses to punish a player for incidents like ball-tampering or sledging without evidence, proving it will be difficult.
This, ICC believes, is a grey area. So an improvement of the existing system may be in store. In the current Code of Conduct, charges for poor on-field behaviour are made only after the match, with teams allowed to review and even approach legal experts. In certain cases, the matter can be heard by an independent judge. South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada recently got his ban overturned after Cricket South Africa protested ICC’s decision based on him accumulating 15 demerit points for allegedly elbowing Steve Smith. Such incidents have only brought more embarrassment to ICC. That is why they reckon the punishments should be severe.
As a result, the fines handed out could be limited only to small offences, and if the umpire and match referee believe the players have brought the spirit of the game into disrepute through behaviour, sledging or abusive send-offs, they are likely to get a minimum of one-match ban irrespective of demerit points. Once the committee proposes these changes and they come through the MCC, which is the law-formulating body, they have to be ratified at the ICC annual meeting in June. venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com