Cricket sledgers face red-card system

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Sledgers will be the target of a football-style card system in Gold Coast cricket clubs this season. More... Cricket sledgers face red-card system Erik Jensen August 28, 2008 - 10:29AM Sledgers will be the target of a football-style card system in Gold Coast cricket clubs this season. But proposals for a similar system in Sydney grade cricket have been damned by NSW's peak umpiring body. The Gold Coast system - approved by Queensland's umpiring coach David Orchard - will involve an immediate red card issued for any racist comments made on the field. Threats of violence would draw a yellow card. "We are issuing the cards to crack down on the behavioural problems we have had in cricket on the Gold Coast the last few seasons," the district's cricket co-ordinator, John Fitzgerald, said. "Although acceptable, there are levels of sledging that are not acceptable - like when it gets personal." Mr Fitzgerald said the system would only be used in first- and second-grade competition and would affect about 26 teams. He said sledging held a place in the sport, and in Australian life, but a level of acceptable conduct had to be achieved on the pitch. The program was expected to curb sledging within the first few weeks of implementation, he said. "There's gamesmanship and you do what you can to distract or get at a player. As a fielder you make comments about their batting," he said. "That's normal in Australia but there are levels that are unacceptable - like when you start getting personal or racist." The NSW Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association has criticised the implementation of behaviour cards, also being considered in Sydney grade cricket, and said strong leadership from captains was the real answer to poor conduct. "The reality is a breach of the code is a breach of the code," the association's chief executive, Peter Hughes, said. "It's not for the umpire to become judge and jury. He is a witness, but by issuing a yellow card he is also prosecutor." He said a system of cumulative yellow cards denied a player due process and could lead to cricketers being unfairly banned from matches without avenue for review. "Better behaviour can be conducted some other way, by getting better captains to lead the players," he said. "Where the problem lies is that clubs don't pick the right captains. Captains are responsible at all times for ensuring the play is conducted within the spirit of the game as well as within the laws." But Sam Loxton, a member of Don Bradman's Invincibles and patron of the Gold Coast Cricket Club, supported the system. He said Bradman would not have been happy with elements of the modern game and that he had never heard the man sledge another player. "I heard him congratulate people on their deeds," he told 2UE. "I want to assure all and sundry that I revisited the Invincibles tape a week ago and I was delighted to hear Doug Ring say that there was not one word out of line on the cricket field in 1948." A system to police sledging was considered by the International Cricket Council at a committee meeting in Kuala Lumper this year. It was met with opposition, including from former Test skipper Mark Taylor.