It is high time on-field bad behaviour was stamped out

Years ago, 'Mad' magazine featured a cartoon strip in which tennis maestro Bjorn Borg was captioned happy, angry, dejected, worried and charged up in different frames. In an obvious dig at the Swede's monumental calm on court, the artist had portrayed him wearing the same expression in each of the frames. In sharp contrast, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe rewrote the code of player conduct, especially the latter who set world records in unseemly tantrums on the tennis court.

Around the same time, cricket was taking its first tentative steps away from being the gentleman's game, players beginning to demonstrate their feelings on the field of play. Indian crowds had their taste of on-field gamesmanship when Tony Greig used mildly intimidatory tactics towards batsmen and umpires, at the same time winning the crowds over with his friendly antics. Elsewhere, the Australians were inventing the 'art' of sledging in a throwback to what giants of the past like Dr WG Grace and Warwick Armstrong had practised a long time ago. Years later, Sunil Gavaskar, given out lbw, tried to walk off the field with his partner Chetan Chauhan in mid-Test match, apparently frustrated by what he felt had been persistently poor umpiring against India. In another Test match, Dennis Lillee and Javed Miandad nearly came to blows. These were spontaneous reactions to explosive situations, but orchestrated misbehaviour was to become the norm in subsequent decades.

'Tiger' Pataudi, the former Indian captain, who equalled Borg in his unemotional demeanour on the cricket ground, once said in a TV interview that he welcomed the spontaneous show of feelings by players today. In his own days, Prasanna and Bedi had started the trend of giving unbridled expression to their joy at each other's success. The West Indians had introduced the high fives, an essential part today of cricket from kindergarten to international. I don't believe however that the former Nawab approved of the overt aggression, verbal abuse and ugly gestures which have become part and parcel of the contemporary game. The ICC referees are beginning to exert authority in this respect, albeit selectively in favour of players of some privileged countries.

Bowlers and fielders look comical when they go into convulsions of celebration of a rare success after the batsmen have hammered them to all parts of the field and the scoreboard reads 300 for 2. But even more vulgar and objectionable is the sight of a bowler showing rude signs or pointing the way to the pavilion when he gets the better of a batsman. This sends out wrong signals to budding cricketers watching the game, as it is their natural tendency to imitate their heroes.

I find equally appalling the ridiculous appealing most teams indulge in nowadays, even when they know there is no chance of getting a verdict in their favour. Not only does needless appealing prejudice the umpire against the guilty player, it shows the player in a poor light, casting doubts on his IQ more than his integrity.

As for flagrant aggro specifically directed at opponents, such conduct only serves to remind us of man's ancestry as traced by Charles Darwin. It is time the ICC directed match referees to stamp out onfield bad behaviour, without playing favourites.