Breaking News - Afridi banned for 1 Test and 2 ODIs

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by flanflinger

I did not know that he went to the other end and did the same!! Plus you can see real damage after his foot as ripped into the pitch!!

The TMS commentators are all agreed that the problem here is limited entirely to intent: one comment was something along the lines of "you'd need explosives to do damage out there" and all agreed that the playing surface carries no significant blemish.

The intent warrants intervention... but the actual impact is laughable: if theguy was going to get banned he really ought to have made a better job of committing the offense!

[flanflinger]

Rachael,

Not too sure if you saw the latest video of the incident, as he digs his foot in a huge chunk of the pitch is pulled up and it is very obvious that some damage had been done..

Maybe they patched it up overnight?

[Zainub]

It doesn't matter what the extent of the damage was, what matters was that he made a deliberate attempt to tamper the pitch. This is wrong. FULL STOP.

Even if the damage was minimal, I would tend to have a zero tolerance policy for any such offence, because it reflects a disregard for the rules, idiocy, un-fair play and and word beginning from c that I better not used because of forum rules.

[Zainub]

I know it would be comparable to punishing the whole team for one man's wrong doing, but I think the gravity of the offence would deserve such a punishment (and the whole team would suffer which ever punishment you would give him; him missing out on the 2nd test is a big blow for Pakistan). As some one else pointed out, this would be a bit similar to getting a red card.

[Captain]

Originally Posted by Zainub

this would be a bit similar to getting a red card.

Didn't the ICC discuss this awhile back and dont they have a system of throwing players out of the game?

[greg]

Any truth in the rumour that after hearing of Darren Gough's success in Celebrity Come Dancing Mr Afridi was getting in some early practice for next year?