LEFT ARM OVER
NEIL MANTHORP: Kagiso suspended for being too chuffed and too passionate
Crimes of passion are different on the sports field and should be far more easily forgiven
Man of the match and suspended for the rest of the series. Kagiso Rabada is one of the least nasty, least mean players to have been hit so hard by the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) excessively punitive code of conduct, in which it takes two years for a player to have the demerit points erased. Crimes of passion are different on the sports field and should be far more easily forgiven. Players are asked to push themselves to breaking point for their team-mates and their countries and, when they do break, they are banned. Which can be fair enough, but that’s where it should end. The idea that an inevitable flare-up as a result of the intensity of emotion and physical exertion required to play Test cricket should remain on a player’s record for two years is clearly farcical. It has resulted in the deeply distasteful spectre of teams deliberately "targeting" key members of the opposition to get them suspended.Cricket’s administrators have created a rotten situation with the wel...
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