Samuels 'not well liked' - White

Cameron White, the Melbourne Stars batsman, has labelled as "remarkable" the reprimand given to his Melbourne Renegades opponent Marlon Samuels over the altercation that earned Shane Warne a one-match BBL suspension. White has also refused to apologise for not going to the aid of Samuels when he suffered a severe facial injury from a Lasith Malinga bouncer later in the same match.

Warne was banned for a match after he grabbed the shirt of Samuels during the second innings of the January 6 game and while Samuels was also charged with breaching the Code of Conduct, his hearing was delayed by a fortnight due to his injury. Samuels was let off with a reprimand after the Code of Conduct commissioner John Price ruled that Samuels threw his bat after "extreme provocation" from Warne, who had just thrown a ball that hit Samuels.

However, the problems had started with an incident earlier in the match when Samuels was bowling and appeared to grab the Stars batsman David Hussey, who was turning to complete a second run. The charge that emerged from that incident, that Samuels "engaged in deliberate or inappropriate physical contact with a player or official", was dismissed.

"Being provoked, I don't think you can use that as an excuse," White said in Melbourne on Tuesday. "It's remarkable, isn't it? How many times have you seen someone throw their cricket bat on a cricket field and get [reprimanded] for being extremely provoked? I've never seen it before. That's what the judiciary came up with."

The heated nature of the match continued when Samuels was struck by a bouncer and the only Stars player who came to check on his welfare was the bowler, Malinga. The injury proved to be serious enough to rule Samuels out of the upcoming ODI series against Australia and meant he was confined to his hotel room for the past two weeks, but White said there were a number of reasons the Stars players did not come to Samuels' aid.

"I don't think he's very well-liked, definitely not just from the Stars' point of view but probably in Australian cricket," White said. "People think he carries on a bit. There's probably a few reasons [we didn't check on him]. We were quite busy."