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Cricket: Fear and fast bowling in the age of demerit points

Cricket: Fear and fast bowling in the age of demerit points

Cricket’s moral superiority complex is a ruse. Kagiso Rabada finds himself in the middle of a very stormy tea cup as the rules of engagement for what constitutes fair dinkum has been stretched to a ludicrous extent. By ANTOINETTE MULLER.

Who’d be a fast bowler these days? If the act of putting your body through such unnatural agony wasn’t enough for your masochism, you have to contend with a game increasingly favouring batsmen. And then, heaven forbid, you had better behave yourself.

No stump kicking, animated send-offs or cross words, please. Because nobody wants to see that on a cricket field. We tut and clap ever-so-politely and you better not cross the line because we’re coming for ya.

Nobody knows this better than South Africa’s pace ace Kagiso Rabada who finds himself in the midst of a very stormy teacup. The 22-year-old was banned for two Tests last week following “contact” with Australian captain Steve Smith.

The incident took his “demerit” points over the edge and the speedster was appealing the decision – which will see him miss the last two Tests of the series – on Monday.

There is an outside chance that Rabada might still play at Newlands if advocate Dali Mpofu makes a good case, but the ICC has 48 hours to make a call.

Whatever happens, the rigmarole has highlighted the sport’s precarious position when it comes to policing behaviour.

Cricket, for all its pretences that it’s played under the guise of gentlemanly conduct while people dressed in bacon and egg suits sit around munching cucumber sandwiches without their crusts, needs to get over itself.

Trying to paint itself as some sort of pinnacle of moral superiority – all while its house is in a mess – is one of the finest examples of diversion tactics since the Gupta bots wormed their way on to the internet.

In its early days, the game evolved to incorporate gambling debauchery. The sport – and the world – has moved beyond those boundaries of course, but cricket now sets itself impossible standards and ludicrous precedents that are impossible to police consistently.

Trying to pass itself off as some sort of pinnacle of always-on-your-best-behaviour all while staggering amounts of rather vile chirps emanate from behind various sets of stumps.

“We’re not like those soccer hooligans or those violent rugga buggers,” those in suits might mutter.

Oh, but you are.

As soon as the rules of engagement are given parameters which can be bent and where invisible lines are crossed or not, depending on who is doing the manoeuvring, the managing of these systems become a complicated mess.

But that’s fair game, isn’t it? Because there is nothing in the rules of engagement about provocation. And those who play the game “hard but fair” will say they’re simply using all the tools available to them.

Nobody can deny that Rabada has got a bit caught up in the moment from time to time, but the final act that led to his undoing is so staggeringly tame that players might be fearful of even shaking hands with each other in future.

Steve Smith, the poor victim in all of this reportedly with his shoulder in a sling now from such brute force, didn’t exactly hustle to get out of Rabada’s way.

If you didn’t know that the best bowler in the world was about to have his series cut short, you wouldn’t even look at what happened twice – as witnessed below at the around the 10-second mark.

Go on. Watch it again. No, your morning coffee wasn’t laced with acid.

It’s been compared to soccer players diving in the box and looking for penalties. And that kind of behaviour doesn’t exactly give the beautiful game a good reputation, does it?

It’s not to say the game should be allowed to unravel into an argy bargy. But what’s the point of implementing a code of conduct if policing that conduct is open to interpretation?

ICC officials will be quick to point out that the system mostly works and that most cricket is played without incident or need for intervention.

Indeed, Mitchell Marsh got slapped with a fine and a demerit point for swearing at Rabada in the same Test. David Warner was fined and given a naughty point for his bust-up with De Kock.

But, like the rogue no-balls that umpires rarely seem to spot these days unless a decision is sent for review, does the system work when somebody gets caught or do players get caught because of the system?

Umpires certainly aren’t fluent in various languages spoken by players around the world so how would they even know if somebody was being sworn at from a dizzy height in Hindi, Urdu or Afrikaans?

The ongoing Test series between South Africa and Australia is in danger of being characterised and remembered for everything that happened off the field, despite some pretty remarkable feats on it.

Add to that the fact that fans are being robbed of seeing the best bowler in the world run in and take wickets for fun and the two sides might as well settle hostilities through interpretive dance. Because we can’t risk engaging fans with a bit of a turf war now can we? DM

Photo: South African captain Faf du Plessis (R) talks with bowler Kagiso Rabada during day two of the third Test match between Australia and South Africa at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 25 November 2016. Photo: EPA/DAVID MARIUZ

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