Cricket must crack down on the abuse

By Geoffrey Boycott
Last Updated: 2:20am GMT 10/01/2008

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I can't help noticing what a resounding lack of sympathy there has been around the world, and even in Australia, for Andrew Symonds and his sad little protestations of racial abuse. So Harbhajan Singh called him a monkey. So what? The Aussies have been dishing out far worse for years, as anyone in the cricket world will tell you.
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For some reason, the Australian team think it's their right to lord it over every opposition team, to disparage them and mock them. Yes, Australia are the world champions. Yes, they're an exceptionally talented and consistent side. But that doesn't give them the right to behave like gods who are outside the normal standards of behaviour.

Cricket must crack down on the abuse
Flare up: Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh

I've always said that sport should abide by the same principles as the rest of society. If a comment is unacceptable in a pub, and would earn you a fist in the face, then it's unacceptable on a playing field. In my view, umpires have been far too lax on this sort of thing for too long. When a fast bowler finishes his follow-through, he's only 10 yards away from the stumps: how can an umpire not hear what he's saying to the batsman? The only reason they don't take any action is because they prefer an easy life.

The Australians have been the leaders in this unsavoury field for as long as I can remember. And I'm not talking about them calling us Englishmen "Pommie bastards" - even though we could treat that as a racial insult if we wanted to, because the word 'Pommie' refers to the fact that our white skin turns red in the hot sun, until we look like pomegranates.

In fact I don't mind the term: I see it as a sort of backhanded compliment. But the Aussies come out with far worse than that. Until a couple of years ago, they had a captain, Steve Waugh, who publicly supported the practice of sledging, although he wrapped it up in a euphemism and called it "mental disintegration".

Waugh's principal fast bowler, Glenn McGrath, was one of the worst offenders. Back in 2003, he had a big bust-up with Ramnaresh Sarwan in the West Indies, after accusing Sarwan of having an unnaturally close relationship with Brian Lara, shall we say. When Sarwan turned around and gave him a mouthful back, and brought McGrath's wife into it (unfortunately, she had just developed cancer), he flipped completely and there was a really ugly incident.

It wasn't long before the Australian Cricket Board rang up and told the captain and players to cut it out. Which is all very well, except that they should keep a closer eye on their team all the time, and not just when there is a nasty scene that makes the news. The administrators must have known that their players were developing a reputation for abusive language. If they had sat them down and laid out an acceptable code of behaviour, and then warned them that anyone who crossed the line would be dropped, we would have seen an end to it all.

If you keep abusing people, sooner or later someone is going to turn around and talk back to you. My message to Symonds - and to his captain Ricky Ponting, who reported Harbhajan to the umpires - is "Don't be a cry baby". If you dish it out, you've got to be prepared to take it in return, and not go running to teacher.

Frankly, I'm not surprised that the Indians threatened to call off the tour. They see this whole affair as a slur on their country. You've got to remember how big the cricket team are over there: they are at the heart and soul of India's national identity. And cricket still has these long-standing associations with sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct, though I wonder how they have survived with everything that's been going on.

In the past, sledging used to be humorous and colourful. I always mention my old friend Fred Trueman, because the things he used to say would crease us up. And I'm not suggesting we should do away with that sort of banter, but let's give it a rest with the abuse, shall we? It's not just the Australians; the whole world are at it and the onus lies with the umpires to be tougher, to nip things in the bud before they reach the stage where the bust-ups are pushing the runs and wickets out of the headlines.

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In my day, you didn't get on the wrong side of umpires, because you knew they had the ultimate sanction: they could give you out if the ball was going down leg. These days, umpires can't go around handing out rough decisions because of TV. But they can use the disciplinary process more firmly, and national boards should give them support by cracking down on any player who steps out of line. It's time everybody in cricket worked together to rid the game of this sickness.