Cricket Australia (CA) were deluged with 15 days of complaints from the cricket public and there was a backlash from sponsors over fast bowler Glenn McGrath’s verbal tirade in the West Indies, the sport’s leading administrator said on Wednesday.
CA chief executive James Sutherland told a business lunch here that Cricket Australia was inundated with phone calls and emails following McGrath’s vein-popping rant at Windies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan on the Caribbean tour in May.
”I can assure you it created a stir in our office,” Sutherland told the luncheon.
A contrite McGrath later apologised to Sarwan and publicly expressed regret at his behaviour but there are still significant ramifications for the sport in Australia.
”The damage that that caused Australian cricket and arguably our brand could never be measured, but judging by the reaction we got from the media and the public there was no doubt there was a diminution as a result of that unfortunate incident,” said Sutherland.
”People were saying that the Australian team were poor role models and don’t want [their] kids playing cricket and the captain needs to take control of the team.”
Sutherland, who at the time demanded skipper Steve Waugh rein in his team’s on-field behaviour, said sponsors had contacted him to say their brands were suffering because of the backlash.
Sutherland said CA learned much from the incident.
While not condoning McGrath’s actions, he also believed that the Australian team had in some ways been ”a victim of its own success”.
”When you are successful in this day and age people do like to pick out the bad things and look for things that aren’t that great,” he said.
No action was taken by either the umpires or match referee Mike Procter against McGrath over the incident although he was rebuked by Sutherland.
Sutherland believed it was up to umpires to clamp down and enforce cricket’s code of conduct to make sure such incidents were promptly dealt with.
”What we need to see is the umpires having the strength of their convictions to act and report players when they cross that line,” he said.
The question of how much, and what extent of, sledging should be allowed could be difficult for umpires.
”We need to clarify it and the umpires need to back it up and perhaps stop trying to be everyone’s mate and actually take the hard line and nail players who cross the line.” -Sapa-AFP