It's welcome to see the ECB's Cricket Discipline Commission Panel showing its teeth this week, finding Essex guilty of "five or more separate occasions of fixed-penalty offences in a 12-month period." and fining the county £5000. What is perhaps harder to swallow is the punishment handed out to James Foster.
As captain, he is held responsible for the conduct of players on the pitch and the accumulation of discretions has landed him with a two-match ban just as the T20 group stage reaches its climax. Essex have responded with the expected pleas of mitigation and assurances that they investigate every transgression of the rules, and also praised Foster's "unblemished" record. However, it was the former England 'keeper's own serious dissent when given out against Surrey that tipped the county over the limit, so he's hardly an innocent bystander.
We all know that the world has changed and cricket, like most sports, is no longer played in a bubble of amateur ethics. Sledging has been going on for years, but that doesn't make it OK. Football's problems with protesting every refereeing decision with mass crowding of officials and foul language resulted in the 'Respect' campaign. A fat lot of good that did! Swishing your bat in frustration at getting out is understandable but of greater concern is that more cricketers seem to think they can get away with verbally abusing umpires. Like footballers, raising their voices results in raising of their profiles because shouting makes for good photos. Maybe it does take the suspension of a high-profile player like Foster to encourage teams to take player discipline seriously and I applaud it.
Of course there have been many instances of indiscipline before: Javed Miandad, John Snow, Denis Lillee were all at it from time to time, and then of course there was Mike Gatting's infamous finger-pointing exchange with the late Shakoor Rana. That should not become the norm. Stuart Broad in particular should take note. His lack of respect for umpires is notorious and as England's T20 captain he should become responsible not only for his own actions but also those of his team-mates. Graeme Swann springs to mind! Today, Murray Goodwin has also been reprimanded by his county for repeatedly showing dissent.
At a time when the focus has been on indiscretions off the pitch in the form of match-fixing, spot-betting and player vs Board battles, cricket needs to maintain its sense of decorum. By all means let's have plenty of exuberance and displays of disappointment. They show to fans that the players care. However, respect for umpiring decisions and the spirit of the game must be paramount if cricket is not to head down the slippery slope long since taken by other sports.
