The International Cricket Council (ICC) is to crack down on excessive sledging between players at the World Cup, saying first offenders can expect heavier fines, while repeat offenders face suspension from matches.
ICC chief executive David Richardson also said players with already poor records of on-field behavior could face immediate match bans if found guilty of a single breach of the ICC’s code of conduct during the tournament.
“That issue has been addressed at all the pre-event team briefings,” Richardson told reporters in Melbourne yesterday. “I suppose it started a few months back already that the behavior in some matches by some players was deemed to be unacceptable and not a good example to young fans watching the game.”
“I think there’s been something like 12-13 code of conduct charges laid in the last few months in bilateral series,” he said. “So the crackdown had already started. I think the teams are going to be told that the umpires intend to remain firm, that the penalties handed out by the match referees will be perhaps a little bit more serious or higher than before, but that hopefully everyone will be treated equally and fairly.”
“For a first offense, you’ll likely end up with a fine, which no player likes; handing back most of his match fee, but certainly a repeat offense, not only in this tournament but some players already sitting with offenses behind their name, will be punished with a suspension,” Richardson said.
The crackdown might give Australia opening batsman David Warner some pause before charging into a verbal altercation given that he has been found guilty of breaching the code of conduct twice in the past two months.
India batsmen Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli were also fined for conduct breaches in December last year during their occasionally ill-tempered Test series with Australia.
Pundits have suggested a soccer-style yellow and red-card system to better stamp out poor on-field behavior, but Richardson said cricket would continue to rely on post-match reviews with on-field umpires and off-field referees to analyze incidents and lay charges where necessary.
“That idea has been debated at a number of previous cricket committee meetings that I’ve attended and probably will be debated again,” he said. “We don’t necessarily want to follow the way that football goes. A lot of these decisions are taken after a measured response by match officials reviewing footage of the match afterwards.”
“That obviously cannot happen when you are brandishing a red or a yellow card on the spur of the moment,” he added.
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