IF FOOTBALL is a gentleman’s game played by hooligans and rugby is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen, just where does the game of cricket stand in the scheme of things?
If you believe some purists, cricket is a gentleman’s game played by gentlemen.
It’s a game in which mild-mannered men in white flannels clap appreciatively and pat each other on the back to applaud a well-bowled in-swinger, a crisply-hit cover drive to the boundary or a finely taken catch at silly mid-off.
No squealing, chirping, sledging, provoking, cheating or heated temper tantrums - just a civilised game of bats, balls and bails in which all players live by the spirit of the game.
Well, if you believe that brand of gentlemanly behaviour still prevails on pitches today, then you’re living in cloud cuckoo land.
Cricket’s a different ball game these days, thanks to the advent of the slash-and-run T20 cricket format, multimillion-dollar IPL tournaments, outrageously high pay packets for players, match-fixing scandals and the lure of sport betting.
It’s just not cricket anymore and some of the unseemly scenes of aggression and unsporting behaviour witnessed in last week’s Test match between South Africa and the Aussies in Port Elizabeth bore testimony to this.
Match-winning paceman Kagiso Rabada captured the most headlines in that encounter, but more for his aggro than his mojo.
My big concern about this new over-aggressive mindset is that many of our young and up-and-coming players may begin to accept this as the norm.
Many cricket scribes and commentators, and even some of Rabada’s teammates, appear to be down-playing the young bowler’s behaviour on the pitch, putting it down to his intense passion and highly competitive spirit.
But rules are rules, and if there was “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact” between Rabada and an opposing player, then the sanction was correct.
And by all accounts, Rabada accepts he was “pumped up” at that moment and readily regrets his actions.
Yet all of this could have been avoided had some of his senior teammates, like captain Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla had the foresight and good sense to step in earlier, take the young man under their wing and nip the problem in the bud.
It is fortuitous that Rabada’s sanction has come at a stage early enough in his career for him to learn from the experience.
He has the potential to become one of the game’s all-time greats - provided he can combine talent with temperament.