Kolkata: A cricket match in Rural Australia had taken a beating as a batsman shoulder-barged a celebrating bowler, knocking him over and causing an on-field chaos. Now, Aussies, stop talking about decency on the field. Here’s what you guys propagate from the grass-root level.
With the ongoing India – Australia Test series already in the limelight with a sledging controversy relating to Matt Renshaw, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, the media caught the clipping of a match between Yackandandah and Eskdale where a pacer clean bowled a batsman and ran towards him celebrating in a manner which wasn’t appreciated by the batsman who knocked him over to the ground. This led to the obvious agitated reaction by a fielder who pushed the batsman to the ground. Before things got way out of hand, the remaining fielders intervened to stop the melee.
“I understand people are passionate about their sport and where they come from they look after their hometowns but this is overstepping the mark, and it’s a big overstep,” chair of the regional Albury Wodonga cricket competition, Michael Erdeljac told Win News Television.
The video, which has gone viral online, happened days after the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), announced some new rules to keep the sanctity of the game intact. The bowler has been given a suspension for four weeks, whereas the batsman and the fielder who got involved have been punished with a ban effective immediately till end of January next year. The disarray came in the sight of the MCC last week announcing that umpires would soon be given powers to send players from the field temporarily or permanently for a range of on-field indecencies including acts of violence.
Excessive appealing, showing dissent and intentionally making physical contact are those crimes umpires will be able to penalise under a new Code of Laws which is set to be issued this year. To the umpire’s discretion, they will be delegated to issue warnings, award penalty runs and send players from the field for inappropriate behaviour.