Published: Feb 23, 2011, 01:53 PM (IST)
Edited: Jul 02, 2014, 10:25 PM (IST)
By Vinay Anand
Ricky Ponting was trying to get back to his best against Zimbabwe in their first group game. He was trotting along nicely, scoring 28 runs off 36 balls, putting up a huge partnership with Shane Watson. Until, at 143 for two, Michael Clarke, the new man at the crease, flicked a ball from Sean Williams to deep midwicket. There were definitely two runs in that. However, Christopher Mpofu – he has one of the best throwing arms in the Zimbabwean team – scored a direct hit at the non-strikers end and ran out Ponting, who fell a few inches short of his crease.
Ponting was furious. Reports suggest that he smashed the LCD television in the dressing room. It clearly shows Ponting’s mental state, which leaves a lot to be desired. He has history of anger outbursts. Like the last Ashes over umpiring decisions. In 2005, he abused Duncan Fletcher, the then England coach, on his way back to the crease after getting run out by a substitute fielder in the Ashes Test match at Nottingham.
Ponting, however, is not the only angry man of cricket. There have been many such incidents in the past as well with several other players from other countries involved too.
Inzamam-ul-Haq was one of the most temperamental players of his era. Soft-spoken as he may sound, Inzi by no means had a calm demeanour about him. Ratification of this lies in one of the games in 1997 when Inzamam-ul-Haq roughed up an Indian fan in Toronto after he called him a ‘potato’, right after his dismissal.
His fellow countryman Shahid Afridi was involved in a similar but minor incident in South Africa in 2006, after one of the spectators abused him and Afridi poked him deliberately with the bat.
Shoaib Akhtar, another Pakistani was sent home before the start of the 2007 World T-20 after he hit Mohammad Asif with a bat.
Kevin Pietersen, too, may look to be the coolest on the cricket field, but when things don’t go his way, he fires up. In a recent ODI against Australia, when he got out to John Hastings, he started abusing the Australians on his way back. However, he got away with that. In the recent Ashes, when he was reaching the dressing room after his dismissal, he threatened to hit an Australian spectator with his bat for allegedly abusing him.
There are many more examples, but certainly these players haven’t gained great popularity after these incidents, even as they have gained high publicity. It’s time that players realize that there is a limit to aggression.
(Vinay Anand, 17, has an uncanny eye for detail. He revers cricket – looking beyond the glamour into the heart of the game where true passion, perseverance and grit meet. To him, there is no greater joy than coming closer to the sport while exploring its intricacies through his writing and treading ahead to establish himself as a writer and presenter)
