South Africa emerged as the bad boy of international cricket following figures released by the sport’s world governing body in London on Monday.
In the nearly two years since the International Cricket Council (ICC) introduced a new code of conduct for international players, South African players had six charges laid against them, ending in five guilty verdicts. By contrast, the West Indies had no charges brought against any of their players during the same period.
Neverthless, ICC chiefs said the general trend was towards improved behaviour and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, among those who had spoken out against declining standards, said the new code was having a positive effect.
”Prior to the new code, I was one of many people in the game who were concerned about this issue but over the past two years I think that the introduction of this code and the greater awareness of the issue amongst the players has resulted in considerable improvement in this area,” said Gavaskar.
Now the chairperson of ICC’s cricket committee (playing), Gavaskar added: ”The code reflects the reality that players have a responsibility to not just their teams but to all those youngsters watching the game. This trend is a strong indication of the improvement that has taken place.”
Of the incidents that saw South Africa players charged, five took place in last October’s ill-tempered series in Pakistan.
South Africa all-rounder Andrew Hall was twice found gulity of offences during the same one-day international at the Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore, following altercations with Pakistan batsman Yousuf Youhana. Hall was banned for one limited overs international and two Test matches by match referee and former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd.
Overall, last year’s one-day and Test series between Pakistan and South Africa was rated the worst in disciplinary terms with seven charges arising. Proteas captain Graeme Smith and Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar were among those found guilty.
Nevertheless, the ICC insisted overall player behaviour was improving.
Their figures showed a reduction in reports from 52 in the two years prior to the introduction of the revised code to just 31 in the 23 months since the new code’s introduction on April 1, 2002.
In a statement issued from its Lord’s headquarters, the ICC said that improved procedures had given players a better chance to defend themselves with four of the 31 acquitted compared to the preceding 52 out of 52 guilty verdicts.
The ICC’s Australian chief executive Malcolm Speed has repeatedly voiced concerns about the issue of dissent in a sport which has traditionally prided itself on players not questioning umpires’s decisions.
But Speed said: ”Particularly pleasing is the drop in the number of charges for dissent which have fallen from 18 in the two years prior to the code to just six since it was introduced, one of which was subsequently not proven.”
Meanwhile ICC general manager David Richardson, the former South Africa wicket-keeper, said match referees — Lloyd, Sri Lanka’s Ranjan Madugalle, India’s Gundappa Viswanath, South Africa’s Mike Procter and Pakistan’s Wasim Raja — were all ”ideally placed to make judgements about on-field issues and the actions and reactions of players”.
Richardson also praised the decision taken by world champions Australia last year to sign up to their own players’ code of conduct even though that move was widely dismissed as a meaningless ”motherhood statement” by the Australian media.
”I think that the initiative shown by the Australian team last year in publicly committing to this ideal is indicative of the desire of the players to play the game in the right spirit and this is borne out in fewer reports,” Richardson said. – Sapa-AFP