South Africa head coach Mark Boucher on Saturday (January 18) expressed concerns over the disciplinary laws in cricket which led to speedster Kagiso Rabada being handed a one-match ban.
See Also: "He has to learn", Holding, Pietersen critical of Rabada after celebration ban
The Proteas pacer has been sanctioned by ICC for an angry celebration after taking the wicket of England skipper Joe Root on Day 1 of the ongoing third Test in Port Elizabeth.
Rabada earned one demerit point and was fined 15 per cent of his match fee after being proven guilty of a level one offence. This not only took his currently active tally of demerit points to four over a two-year period but also made him deserving of ban from a Test match as per the ICC regulations.
“I am concerned, to be honest... you don’t want to take all the aggression out of Test cricket. You’ve got two countries playing hard cricket against each other,” Boucher quoted as saying by Reuters.
“There are heated situations, the guys are trying really hard and sometimes their emotions overflow.”
Boucher, who played 147 Tests for his country, said the ICC needs to “find a balance” as he believes taking the “emotion out of the game” is not desirable.
“I understand where the ICC are going with it and hopefully they find a balance that they don’t take the emotion out of the game because I think there is still a big part for that in the game of cricket.”
Boucher also feels there was nothing wrong with Rabada’s celebration.
“I wasn’t aware about all the demerit points and how it quite works,” he remarked.
“It’s tough because he wasn’t even looking at the batsman but he was in his space.
“The bottom line is that ... the match referee has made up his mind.
“In his eyes it was a misdemeanour and a level one charge, which is almost like a slap on the wrist, but because of previous demerits he won’t be playing in the next Test.
“In our days we didn’t have to deal with this stuff. We could pretty much say what we wanted and get away with it.”
Boucher, who took charge of the team last month, acknowledged that losing Rabada for the fourth and final Test in Johannesburg is a “massive blow” for South Africa.
“He’s a world class performer especially at the Wanderers where he will be very effective. It’s very disappointing. KG is a team man and he’ll be feeling very disappointed about it and it’s something we’ll have to address,” he concluded.
(Inputs from Reuters)
