ICC confirms punishment on Indians

By Our Special Correspondent

PORT ELIZABETH, NOV. 20. The ICC officially said at 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday that Sachin Tendulkar has brought `disrepute' to the game. The ICC's statement, through its representative here for the Castle Lager/MTN Test series, Mr. Mike Denness, faulted Tendulkar, a prolific maker of centuries in Tests and one-day internationals, for changing the condition of the ball, otherwise notoriously referred to as `tampering with the ball'.

Mr. Denness, Scotland-born and an ICC official since 1995-96, confirmed that Tendulkar interfered with the ball on the third day of the second Tests here, thus changing its condition. He fined him 75 per cent of his match fees - the board pays a player for a Test approximately Rs. 45,000 and also applied a one-Test ban, suspended till December 31, 2001.

Mr. Denness has said in a written statement that Tendulkar came under the purview of the ICC Code (2) which says that ``Players and/or Team Officials shall at no time engage in conduct unbecoming to their status which could bring them or the game of cricket into disrepute''. Tendulkar's relations with the match officials and rival teams, since he made his debut against Pakistan under the captaincy of Krishnamacharri Srikkanth in 1989, has been only friendly. The Test here at Port Elizabeth is his 86th. He has played 280 one-day internationals in which he has scored more than 10,000 runs.

Either Mr. Denness is convinced that Tendulkar was trying to change the condition of the ball or he was merely applying the specific rule (Law 42. 3 - The Match Ball, Changing its condition) to penalise Tendulkar. The master batsman who was seen as a prodigious batsmen, a likeable man, winner of many awards, and as the late Sir Don Bradman called him `What a lovely bonzer of a chap,' must accept the fate. Some of the finest players in international cricket in the last ten years like Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram, Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose, Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock and Inzamam-ul-Haq have been punished for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct which came into force in 1993. The Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly, has been rather unlucky to be penalised the way he has been by Mr. Denness. Ganguly who has been docked half a dozen times before, has been held responsible for not maintaining the spirit of the game and not able to control the players and hence bringing the game into disrepute. The Preamble of the `The Laws of Cricket' 2000 code, is explicit in accounting the responsibilities of the captains. The spirit of the game involves RESPECT for (1) your opponents (2) your own captain and team (3) the role of the umpires and (4) the game's traditional values.

It also states that it's against the spirit of the game (1) to dispute an umpires's decision by word, action or gesture (2) to direct abusive language towards an opponent or umpire (3) to indulge in cheating or any sharp practice, for instance (a) to appeal knowing that the batsman is not out (b) to advance towards an umpire in an aggressive manner when appealing (c) to seek to distract an opponent either verbally or by harassment with persistent clapping or unnecessary noise under the guise of enthusiasm and motivation of one's own side. In addition, the Preamble says that captains and umpires together set the tone for the conduct of a cricket match and that every player is expected to make an important contribution to this.

To Mr. Denness, it appeared that an `Indian Mob' was working overtime to bring disrepute to the game at the St. George's Park. He targeted a two-Test freshman, Virendra Sehwag, on three counts. Sehwag, who scored one of the fastest centuries in one- day cricket against Sri Lanka in Colombo and also a hundred on his Test debut in Bloemfontein, is supposed to have (1) showed dissent at umpire's decision against a South African batsman (2) intimidated the umpire by charging and (3) used crude or abusive language. For the cumulative violations (1 and 2), Sehwag drew a fine of 75 per cent and one Test ban, which straightaway ruled him out of the third Test starting next Friday.

Sehwag is also among a clutch of players in Harbhajan Singh, Deep Dasgupta and Shiv Sundar Das, all of whom have supposed to have collectively intimidated the umpire by charging. For this violation, Das, Dasgupta and Harbhajan have been fined 75 per cent of their match fees and a suspend one-Test match ban, expiring on 31 January 2002.

So far the ICC has penalised less than 140 players and officials (managers and coaches) since the independent panel of umpires and match referees were introduced into the international cricket to enforce the ICC's Code of Conduct for players and officials. It is not the first instance, though, of more than a player being penalised by the Match Referee. In fact, the first instance itself three Pakistani players - Intikhab Alam, Javed Miandad and Aaqib Javed - were punished by Conrad Hunte. This was against England in Old Trafford in July 1992. There has also been this instance of the South African batsmen Peter Kirsten being fined 25 per cent and 40 per cent of his match fees for showing dissent (when given out lbw) in both the innings of the Test against Australia in Adelaide in 1994.

Then, there is this case of Gary Kirsten being penalised for wearing a colourful bandana and the team manager Mike Doherty also being fined because he could not persuade Kirsten to remove it! West Indian Curtly Ambrose was fined $1,500 for kicking the stumps in disgust after being bowled. The list is long with Match Referees like John Reid and Cammie Smith and Jackie Hendrick very harsh on players.

But this is the first time six players - more than half the team - have been penalised. And the same Scotsman, Mike Denness is known to have done India a favour when some years ago he asked the on field umpires - Russell Tiffin officiating in this Test was one of them - to continue play in the final of the Bangladesh Independence Cup in Dhaka. India beat Pakistan in the final with Hrishikesh Kanitkar hitting a four of the last ball.

Mike Denness might have appeared extremely harsh; but he has simply gone by the book. He was tight-lipped at the press conference because, the ICC rules did not permit him to utter a word!

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