ICC to get tough on ‘hooligan’ behaviour

LAHORE—The International Cricket Council (ICC) underlined its determination on Monday to stop cricket from becoming a “hooligan” sport. ICC President Ehsan Mani told newsmen that the world body was concerned about increasing incidents of verbal sparring between international teams.
“We don’t want cricket being reduced to a level where it turns into a hooligans’ sport and the spirit of the game is eroded,” Mani said. The ICC issued a verbal warning to players on Sunday after a prolonged war of words between Australia and South Africa.
Mani said the ICC would completely back umpires and match referees in enforcing the players’ code of conduct because even sporting banter could only be tolerated to a certain level. “What we are looking at is introducing a uniform consistency in the way the match officials enforce the code of conduct,” he said. “There is some inconsistency at the moment but we are very serious about this issue”.
He pointed out that ICC match officials have been asked to be strict in dealing with players’ on the field behaviour. “And you will see that we are not going to let up on this at all,” Mani said. “We can’t allow the spirit of the game to be compromised”. The ICC Code of Conduct governs the players and officials behaviour on and off the field. In recent months number of players have been penalised for violating the code. Mani said the ICC would be discussing this issue in detail as cricket was now a more global sport and widely followed by youngsters around the world.—Agencies