AUSTRALIA have been warned their ugly bullying of umpires must stop immediately as embarrassed skipper Ricky Ponting door-knocked teammates to apologise for his latest disciplinary blunder.
Ponting was fined his $4900 match fee for dissent after he berated Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf for calling a wide off Shane Watson in the 33rd over of the West Indies innings in Malaysia.
“You never heard a noise? Well how can you be umpiring if you don’t hear a noise like that?” a furious Ponting bellowed, believing the ball had come off the thigh pad.
Ponting, who stormed from his fielding position to question the decision, pleaded guilty to a dissent charge at a post-match hearing.
His penalty was doubled because it was his second such offence in the past 12 months.
Match referee Chris Broad, the man who described Australia’s animated appealing as “borderline” after the Boxing Day Test this year, sent a clear signal that Australia’s intimidatory tactics would no longer be tolerated in world cricket.
“What happened last night was simply not acceptable, especially from the captain of a side,” Broad said.
“Australia’s hard-nosed attitude is what makes them good but players cannot treat umpires like this.”
The fact that Broad immediately jumped on Australia – in their first international match since April – means Australian player behaviour will be under unprecedented scrutiny from officials in this summer’s Ashes.
Ponting’s blow-up was yet another sign that Australia’s discipline problems are far from behind them despite a much publicised pledge to its Spirit of Cricket pact.
Last summer against South Africa was marred by ugly incidents with Glenn McGrath (obscene language) and Brett Lee (dissent) reprimanded, while Adam Gilchrist (dissent) was fined.
Ponting, who was fined for showing dissent in the second Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong in April, is walking a fine line because any further breaches could result in a suspension.
Ashamed by the latest incident, a contrite Ponting embarked on an early morning door-knock of teammates at their Malaysian hotel to call players to a 15-minute team meeting where he issued a personal apologised.
Later, he telephoned Cricket Australia’s acting boss, Michael Brown, and issued an extraordinary public apology, also pledging to personally apologise to umpire Rauf.
“I know I made a serious error of judgment,” Ponting said. “I regret the approach I made to umpire Rauf and I shouldn’t have behaved in the way I did.”
SOURCE: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20405333-5001023,00.html
*This is the team who said that Austalia would never follow Pakistan’ lead and wouldn’t walk off in a test. Yeah, right, they are often invlove in these cry baby incidents, pressurizing the match officials. I can’t even imagine their reaction if an umpire change the cricket ball in the field and charge them for tampering. *
Probably they all will start beating the umpire :hehe: j/k
*
To top that funny PCB choef comes and says that we were protesting for few minutes..What is it MUhalla Cricket??
