Wanted: Cool Heads in Heated Battle

That seems to be the sort of sledging that Australians like to indulge in. That was the series where Shaun Pollock was picked out by Darrel Hair, the third Australian member of the Emirates Elite umpires panel. Pollock lost his match fee by suggesting that Hair get the TV umpire to check what a Pakistan bowler was doing with the seam. Hair didn’t like that sort of criticism at all.

South African captain Graeme Smith was given a match banning and lost a few dollars as well when he got involved in the Hall/Youhana spat. Instead of calming the situation he exacerbated the problem. After the New Zealand tour, where he has come off second best to streetwise Stephen Fleming, Smith is gaining the reputation of becoming the game’s new bad boy.

Under the March 2003 code of conduct there have been 31 citings of players; under the 2000 code there were 52. Sure it is a nice reduction but doesn’t it perhaps mean that the game is becoming one for girl guides?

One of the reasons for the fewer citings is that umpires are making a bigger impact on the game in the middle and taking the heat out of some of the squabbles and stand-offs. David Shepherd was the one who felt that the McGrath/ Sarwan verbals stayed on the field and that no action should be taken. It was the same umpire who hauled Waqar Younis out of the Pakistan attack in the opening game of World Cup at the Wanderers after three consecutive beamers to Andrew Symonds.

India’s two notable offences in the past six months were Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Ganguly was given a reprimand for running on the pitch in the Test series against New Zealand and came after South African umpire Rudi Koertzen gave him a warning. Dravid was caught on camera putting a yellow substance on the ball that turned out to be a lozenge. Both were mild offences, nothing at all like that of Hall/Youhana/ Smith verbal fracas or Pollock’s decision to tell Hair what was going on behind his back.

This is why Pakistan’s bad boy image needs to be looked at. In Sri Lanka last year Shoaib Akhtar was caught tampering with the ball in the limited overs series in Dambulla and given a second one-match banning in a year. He was lucky to get away with that.

As one retired Test umpire, Carl Liebenbeg, said, in Pakistan you have to be aware of what is going on not only when you are on the field but off it. Approaches with offers of luxury goods if you give favourable decisions involving Pakistan players was common enough; so was a player making an approach about another player’s conduct. He found it was wise to keep your eyes open and observe and to say nothing.

Under Inzamam-ul Haq’s leadership, Pakistan have not, as officials had hoped, cleaned up their act, especially with Javed Miandad running dressing-room politics. John Wright, however, after the disastrous Port Elizabeth experience in November 2001, has tried to keep a tight disciplined squad, and with the help of Ganguly has managed to play it hard but fair. From this last Australia tour Ganguly has learned what it means to be as hard-nosed and pugnacious as any Australian.

Pakistan might like to be reminded of this small fact. But after a 15-year lull, the battle between the two powerful South Asian nations is about to start again. Hopefully, the need to have the series played with a touch of dignity becomes just as important as is the resuming of such links.