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England to get tough with dissenting cricketers

By A Correspondent

If it was beer-guzzling spectators that first caused concern for English cricket authorites, now it is ill-behaved players.

Chairman of selectors David Graveney, who headed the panel that recently fined Mark Ramprakash 25% of his match fee and handed out a suspended one-match ban for dissent in the second Test of the ongoing series between England and South Africa at Lord's, indicated that the national selectors would be taking a more serious note of player behaviour in future.

One of the worst offenders, ironically, is none other than English skipper Alec Stewart, who is rarely known to accept a decision against him with grace.

This forms part of a general push towards cleaning up the English cricket act. Lancashire county officials had, prior to the ongoing third Test at Old Trafford, banned fancy dress, large headgear and the bringing in to the ground of alchoholic beverages.

The increasingly close scrutiny of television cameras, Graveney pointed out, meant that players' reactions are very visible. It is, the chairman of selectors stressed, therefore doubly important for England's cricketing representatives to accept decisions, even bad ones, with equanimity and grace.

"When the team was selected," said former England star Graveney, "I made a point of reiterating their responsibilities as international cricketers. They are role models for young people in this country, and our push for discipline falls in line with the code of conduct issued by the Professional Cricketers' Association over the last couple of years."