Angry Ishant needs to be reined in

Rohit Mahajan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 2

When Indian cricketers suffer sledging, bordering on personal abuse, and physical intimidation, on the field of play, the Indian media and fans roundly criticise the culprits from the other teams. By the same token, when the Indian players behave badly on the field, shouldn’t they be criticised? Surely, something can’t be wrong when the Indian players are at the receiving end, and right when the Indian players themselves do it?

Ishant Sharma deserves censure because his conduct has been consistently appalling — it’s not a one-off case of losing his temper. His behaviour during the recent Test series has been quite bad. He was fined 65 percent of his match fee during the second Test. But to multi-millionaire cricketers, even a 65 percent fine doesn’t matter. For further bad behaviour in the third Test, Ishant has been suspended for one Test — perhaps that would hurt.

Ishant’s behaviour is supported by his captain, Virat Kohli, himself prone to fits of rage and ugly behaviour on and off the field. “I was very happy with the incident (argument with Sri Lanka’s fast bowler Dhammika Prasad) when he was batting,” Kohli said after the match. “It happened at the right time for us because we had to bowl on Monday and they made him angry. It could not have happened at a better time for us.”

When the captain justifies and abets the bad behaviour of his players, in a mad pursuit of victory, it becomes a matter of serious concern. More alarming is the fact that few former players and commentators view Ishant’s behaviour as shameful.

Bishan Singh Bedi, the former Indian captain, is one of the few players who do and say the right thing.

“They talked about aggression and then Ishant gets banned for a match. Is this what you want on a cricket field?” Bedi told a news agency today. “This is pathetic display of aggression. And remember this has nothing to do with Virat’s aggression, who is just giving statement after statement and trying to sell his aggression through words.”

“He (Kohli) did a very good job in the context of this series but he needs to control his aggro,” Bedi added. “There is always one camera which is focused on the captain, so he has to be an exceptionally good role model. You be aggressive with your bat, ball and fielding not with your mouth. These are very early days as far as his captaincy is concerned.”

Being an “aggressive player” is something a lot of players aspire to – some players go to the extent of picking up a quarrel with an opposition player. James Anderson, the England fast bowler, is the prime example of this kind – he’s normally quiet and soft-spoken. But, to fire himself up, he has felt the need to animate his inner demon and get into a fight with an opposition player. Last year, after a war of words, Anderson pushed India’s Ravindra Jadeja towards the Indian dressing room — Anderson admitted doing this. That situation had arisen due to provocation and retaliation through words. That was wrong, and Indian media criticised Anderson’s behaviour.

Similarly, we need to criticise our own fast bowler when he behaves badly, even if he’s been successful in taking wickets.