ICC must step in, it’s getting too 'obnoxious'
India's tour of Australia may have produced the most riveting cricket in recent times, but it has also spewed venom, anger, even hatred, thereby making it deserving enough to put it in a leaky time capsule and bury it deep somewhere, writes Harsha
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
India's tour of Australia may have produced the most riveting cricket in recent times, but it has also spewed venom, anger, even hatred, thereby making it deserving enough to put it in a leaky time capsule and bury it deep somewhere, writes Harsha Bhogle in the Indian Express. Matthew Hayden's 'obnoxious weed' comment on Harbhajan Singh and MS Dhoni's suggestion that youngsters need to learn the art of sledging doesn't do the game any credit. He calls on the ICC to step forward and just ban sledging.
And yet, unwittingly, Hayden may have done us a favour for he has surely taken the game closer to the “zero-tolerance” on sledging that the ICC so happily endorsed last week. It can no longer remain on the agenda, it can no longer require another meeting to endorse. It must be done today. Cricket is on the path to hatred and the ICC needs to pull it back now.
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo