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The
International Cricket Council are planning to remind umpires they
have the power to discipline players in an attempt to improve
on-field behaviour following the stormy recent Test between West
Indies and Australia in Antigua.
The
world's governing body have become increasingly concerned about
behaviour in Tests and introduced a new Code of Conduct last
April, which gave umpires the power to charge players rather than
match referees.
But
the recent Test in Antigua, where Australian fast bowler Glenn
McGrath became involved in an unseemly spat with West Indies
batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan with both players escaping without
punishment, has persuaded the ICC that they need to underline the
umpires' responsibility to them once again.
ICC
chief executive Malcolm Speed said: "The whole issue of
players behaviour is one that concerns the ICC.
"The
message we have given to the umpires is that there is a new Code
of Conduct in place and we want them to enforce it."
Speed
even went as far as to single out experienced umpires David
Shepherd and Venkat, who stood in Antigua, and stressed that he
thought they should have taken further action during the
ill-tempered contest.
"When
we reviewed the tapes this week it is our view that it would have
been appropriate for a charge to have been layed for a couple of
incidents and the umpires didn't do that," he said.
"We
would like to reinforce the message to all umpires that where is a
charge to be laid it should be done. Players and umpires make
mistakes and in my opinion the umpires made a mistake in this
match by failing to lay a charge.
"We
don't want to go around sacking umpires because of a mistake. We
don't want umpires to be worried they might be dropped if they
make a mistake but in appropriate circumstances it's important the
umpires lay the charge and the referee deals with it."
Former
Australian Cricket Board chairman Speed also had a word of warning
to the Australian team, whose behaviour during the last Test
prompted fierce criticism around the world.
"The
Australian team are one of the great cricket teams we have seen in
the history of the game," he stressed. "It would be
unfortunate if they were remembered as a badly behaved team rather
than a great team that behaved well."
Speed
was talking at the launch of a new system for devising the world
Test championship table, which will now award points for every
Test rather than just the result of all series.
The
points system will be weighted so that if a team are victorious
over another that is higher in the table, they will be rewarded
more than if the result was reversed and leaves England in fourth place, 22 points adrift of leaders Australia.
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