INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 7

STARC AND POLLARD DESERVE EXEMPLARY PUNISHMENT

It made for ugly viewing and it hurts our sensibilities. The boorish behaviour of Royal Challengers Bangalore paceman Mitchell Starc and Mumbai Indians allrounder Kieron Pollard during the Indian Premier League game in Mumbai on Tuesday was a poor advertisement for the game, more so when IPL stakeholders have sworn to focus on cricket.
Writing as I do before there is word about Match Referee Andy Pycroft's hearing with these players, I am hoping that the franchises will themselves pull up the two players for clashing as they did. Their exemplary punishments will go a long way towards making sure that there are no repeats of such horrible incidents that tarnish cricket's image.
That will also help us reclaim our wonderful game.
Just a couple of nights ago, we were letting our hearts swell in pride and joy in celebration of the amazing display of camaraderie put up by Sunrisers Hyderabad paceman Dale Steyn and ace RCB batsman AB de Villiers in Bangalore. The vanquished and the victor's spontaneous show of admiration for one another was awesome stuff.
Who gave Starc and Pollard the license to hijack that memory? We must reject "this-was-a-heat-of-the-moment-thing" or "he-was-only-reacting-to-grave-provocation" explanations. We must ensure no one emulates such boorish behaviour. Indeed, we can do without wonderful moments featuring Steyn and De Villiers being overpowered by dark memories.
From 1981, images of Pakistan skipper Javed Miandad raising his bat and threatening to smash Dennis Lillee's head rose from the sub-conscience. Of course, the match was broadcast live but since we were unfamiliar with cable and satellite TV and since our newspapers did not print colour photographs, it is only the black and white version that is embedded.
There is no such evidence of Manoj Prabhakar striking Delhi team-mate Maninder Singh with his bat during the Steel Trophy final in Delhi in 1988. And there must one photograph - in The Hindu's archives in Chennai - of Raman Lamba with a raised bat and Rashid Patel with a stump assuming gladiator postures during a Duleep Trophy game in Jamshedpur in 1991.
Starc and Pollard could have done without triggering dark memories and setting off cricket fans looking for YouTube videos of the Miandad-Lillee incident. At a time when TV and streaming has made the sport reach out to a wider audience than in the past, it is imperative that players remember their responsibilities towards cricket and act accordingly.
What is worrying is the kind of abusive send off that uncapped youngsters like RCB legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal and MI seamer Jasprit Bumrah gave Corey Anderson and De Villiers respectively. We were left with a bitter taste in the mouth and must not dismiss their behavior as immature, or even childish.
Sadly, these boys have picked up the wrong traits. And there are so many more watching these emerging cricketers and tucking away such verbal send offs in their own minds without realising how demeaning such actions are to the game itself. Surely, there must be some difference between cricket and street-fighting.

When will Starc, Pollard and their ilk learn that it is possible to play hard cricket without asking for or giving any quarter and without disrespecting either the opposition in general and the game itself in particular? When will Chahal and Bumrah realise that send offs must be reserved only for bus and train stations and the departure lounges of airports.
G.RAJARAMAN