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Are they immune?
Certainly there must be something wrong or else the Indians and the Sri Lankans are the worst behaved cricketers in the whole world!

In the year 2004 the majority of the cricketers booked by the ICC match referees are Indian (7) and Sri Lankan cricketers (4 ). According to the ICC International Cricket Rules and Regulations the two worst offenders are the Sri Lanka batting sensation Kumar Sangakkara and the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly who have been booked thrice each.

What this column is trying to point out is -- that one must punish the breakers of the law or the codes of conduct. But, are some of the cricketers being put under the microscope and the others are being let off freely.

A good example is that during the 2nd ODI on February 22 at Dambulla in the game between Australia and Sri Lanka, Australian batsman Andrew Symonds was ruled out lbw by Sri Lankan umpire Peter Manuel. Symonds then stood his ground indicating to the umpire he hit the ball and saying something inaudible. As he walked off he swore. Match referee Mike Proctor felt it was more disappointment than dissent taking everything into account.

Then on 31 October during the second Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the Lankans were battling it out to salvage a game that had slipped out of their grasp. It was the fourth day. Sri Lanka batting for the second time were on 351 for 4 in the penultimate day when Sangakkara on 138 not out played an unwarranted drive outside the off stump and was caught behind by wicket keeper Kamran Akmal off the bowling of rookie paceman Naved-ul-Hassan. Being unable hold back his frustration and disappointment Sangakkara flung his bat up in the air as he knew that he started the end of the Sri Lankan resistance.

For this action depicting disappointment match referee Jeff Crowe of New Zealand charges him for breach of code 1.2. Abuse of cricket equipment or clothing, ground equipment or fixtures and fittings. Taken away was a staggering 30% of his match fee. May be it was the third time that Sangakkara had a incident in the middle during a given period of time, but, Sangakkara unlike Symonds as mentioned before did not mean any harm to any one, he was only trying to vent his frustration of letting his country down.

On November 13 during the one-off ODI between India and Pakistan when the latter were on a roll it was clear that all Indian bowlers were uncomfortable and on more than one occasion it was seen that the bowlers were taking time to clean out the soles of their boots of the mud that had got stuck in them. Souvrav Ganguly was booked and match referee Clive Lloyd suspended him for two Test matches.

Earlier in an incident Australian batsman Darren Lehmann abused Sri Lankan cricketers during a match calling them "black c...!", but at that time the match referee once again Clive Lloyd thought that a reprimand was sufficient till the ICC chief Malcolm Speed thought otherwise intervened and saw to it that he got a five match ban!.

From that point we turn on to the current Australia-New Zealand series. During the first Test there were two incidents that hit the headlines in the world press, but, yet the players concerned went scot-free.

The more prominent was the Darr-Warne issue. When New Zealand batsman Jacob Oram was on fire leg spinner Warne kept on bowling on a negative length outside the leg stump till umpire Aleem Darr no-balled the Australian bowler. This ended in an exchange of words between the match official and the player.

Australian vice-captain Adam Gilchrist believes in a new culture in cricket. If you are out you walk out whatever the judge at the other end or beside him thinks of. But, during this same game New Zealand batsman Craig McMillan decided to stay put till the umpire's decision was given.

At this point Gilchrist from behind the stumps makes a request to the batsman to take a walk or to take some batting lessons or take up an alternate profession. Clear sledging, but match referee Mike Proctor did not take action against either of these miscreants.

The scroll can open out longer, but, what is given above would suffice we feel to state our point. Finally is it only Asians who make mischief beyond the boundary ropes or that most of the time the ICC match referees take a more lenient attitude against the players from first world countries? For the whole of the year 2004 which is fast coming to an end only one Englishman has been booked in person of Simon Jones. Is it that the other English cricketers are a pack of angels and have decided not be with the Jones's.

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