Things Start To Get Umpleasant

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

The Series Turns Nasty

 

July 17^th 2014

 

Things have taken a whole new nasty turn in England’s often fractious relationship with Asian cricket and India in particular. Ravi Jadeja has laid a charge of what amounts to common assault (i.e. a criminal offense) aggravated by racial(?) abuse, against Jimmy Anderson. If the charges are proven, Anderson can expect a minimum two match ban but, in the prevailing atmosphere, would be unlikely to get off so lightly.

What is odd is that the offense allegedly happened at lunchtime on Thursday – the 2^nd day of the Test – and was so serious that MS Dhoni has refused all attempts at mediation, yet the media knew nothing about the incident until shortly before the charges emerged on Tuesday. Even Alistair Cook knew nothing was untoward until receiving a text message on Monday afternoon. Both sides claim to have neutral witnesses but, off the record, the Indians have stated that, in their opinion, “Anderson is a goner”, which suggests that they feel confident that an assault did occur. If such a serious incident took place though, it is astonishing that there was no comment to the media, no hint in any match report, no sign on the pitch that something was seriously amiss.

England have replied with a counter-charge, which looks alarmingly like tit-for-tat and the whole atmosphere has soured suddenly. No player has been on a Level 3 charge since Harbajhan Singh was alleged to have called Andrew Symonds a monkey – the BCCI threatened to call off the tour if Harbajhan was banned. Given the BCCI’s increasingly aggressive stance when their interests are threatened, Jimmy Anderson’s chances of escaping a heavy ban must be very small.

As no camera captured the incident and no press witnessed it, the facts are almost impossible to establish, but the suggestion is that some on-field sledging went on too long and too far. The hearing will not take place until after the Test and, until it does, there is little hope of having a clear view of what happened and why it was allowed to escalate so badly. There is no point in speculating as to exactly what happened. The ever-reasonable George Dobell, writing on CricInfo, suggests that the problem is that England are becoming increasingly unpopular and that sides are being goaded into action by dubious on-field behaviour, if so, the time has come to do something about it. Play hard by all means, but play fair.

What effect this will have on the Test match starting at Lords is anyone’s guess. The pitch appeared to be emerald green when revealed. Both captains have asked for pitches with more life in them, but it is hard to believe that the surface will not look a lot different at the start of play, after the final cut and preparation. Some pundits expected Liam Plunkett to be rested for this game and Chris Jordan to come back into the side but, now, there are increasing suggestions that the team may be unchanged.

Whatever happens, England urgently need to start winning some friends, both on the field and off it.