Pointless Atherton calls for Sreesanth ban

Michael Atherton has called for Sreesanth to be banned for bowling a beamer at Kevin Pietersen during the second innings of the Trent Bridge Test. On the face of it this is explosive coming from a former England Captain and opening batsman. If you think about it though, it is little more than an event which has been sidelined by England’s own stupidity vis a vis Jelly beans.

Atherton suggests that the beamer was remarkably accurate for it to have been accidental and that the 50% fine for the shoulder contact with Michael Vaughan should have been in addition to a ban for bowling the beamer. Atherton’s point about physical injury is well taken, and the ICC might indeed wish to have a look at Atherton’s point of view. But lets consider what the ICC has in fact already done with regard to the beamer. If a bowler bowls a beamer (defined as full toss reaching the batsman above the waist), he gets warned, while if it happens again, he must be withdrawn as a bowler from the rest of the innings. Atherton makes no mention at all of this rule in his column.

The Jelly beans incident has been systematically down played by Atherton. There is more to that incident than meets the eye. As Zaheer pointed out :
“As all of you know an incident happened on the field while I was batting,” said Zaheer. “There were some jelly beans at the crease while I was batting and I chucked them off the wicket. When I faced the next ball there were again some jelly beans on the wicket, so obviously someone was chucking from behind.

Contrast this with the English account of the episode:
But Vaughan said: “The guys promised me they weren’t throwing them. They were just left there at a drinks interval.”

Now, theres a matter worthy of investigation. Jelly beans left during the drinks break would be a harmless bit of clumsy untidiness, while Jelly beans being repeatedly chucked on to the pitch (well, not repeatedly, the first time it was repeated Zaheer put a stop to it by yelling at the English crowd around him). Contrast Vaughan’s reaction to the jelly beans episode with Dravid’s reaction to the Sreesanth episode. Contrast it with Sreesanth’s reaction to the Sreesanth episode. The bowler admitted that his captain was “upset with a few things”. Repeatedly chucking jelly beans on the pitch is completely different from some left over from the drinks break (you might ask why drinks were held within chucking distance of the pitch (jellybeans range of course), but we’ll concede that point and grant England that they did in fact end up there by accident (just as Vaughan has deigned to take Sreesanth’s word for the beamer being accidental). But the other issue is the real concern. It betrays a school yard bully immaturity, which is distinct from being a tough side “eleven players who hunt together” in Matt Prior’s words (a bit of unsolicited advice to England – if they want to be taken seriously as bully’s, they need to fire Prior from the pulpit and install someone more believable there).

India have taken steps to remedy the Sreesanth situation. It started with the captain’s candid acknowledgment that Sreesanth needed to be taken aside and spoken to. What have England done? Vaughan tried in vain to deflect attention from jelly beans to beamer/no-ball. Now Atherton has joined him. Falling behind in a home series to anyone other than Australia or South Africa seems to have stung badly.

India can expect more school boy efforts and definitely more determined cricket from England. England will hope that it is the Trent Bridge Sreesanth and not the Johannesburg Sreesanth that they find at the top of his run at the Oval. I suspect we will find the latter.

Meanwhile, the support for England from their ex-players when they are down is impressive. It is also pointless because it has little merit from the point of view of the Law. Only Gavaskar amongst all Indian columnists has stood as firmly in India’s corner as Atherton does in England’s. In the process Atherton compromises his status as a serious cricket journalist, but when England are down, it doesn’t seem to matter. In some ways, that is how it should be – especially when you have been an England Captain…