CHENNAI: Players charging at opponents, making unacceptable gestures at outgoing batsmen. Disappointed by a call of the umpire, a captain urging his team to walk out. Cricket has of late been a cauldron of boiling emotions, often leading to ugly scenes and forcing its law-enforcing agencies into action.
From Test series in South Africa to T20 tri-series in Sri Lanka, match referees have worked overtime in the past few weeks. Sanctions have ranged from deduction of match fees, reprimands, warnings, even suspension. And that’s where the question of consistency comes in. Have the ICC and its match referees treated each case using the same parameters?
Going by the penalties handed to South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada and Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan, it appears that standards followed are not the same. While Rabada got a Level 2 charge with 3 demerit points, Shakib got a Level 1 charge with 1 demerit point. Eight demerit points in 24 months lead to a suspension, like what happened in case of Rabada.
Was Shakib’s offence less serious than Rabada, who brushed Steve Smith’s sleeves with his chest in celebration of dismissing the Australian? Being the captain, who is expected to behave more responsibly, Shakib was asking his team to walk off because they were unhappy with a no-ball call. Instead of setting examples, he was setting a bad precedent. If reports are true, they also broke glasses in the dressing room in Colombo.
Despite all that, Shakib getting Level 1 and 1 demerit point leads to questions whether the same rule is applied to everyone? “The ICC and match referees have to be consistent,” said former India opener and coach Anshuman Gaekwad. “Rabada and Shakib were guilty of bringing the game to disrepute. The definition of disrepute may vary. That’s why I won’t call it disparity. But yes, there is need for consistency.”
With cricket no longer a gentleman’s game, there may be a rise in such incidents. Inconsistency in decisions is something a game hoping to become global can’t afford.