Crowe must defuse stoush: Katich
The conduct of everybody involved in the spiteful first test between Australia and South Africa in Durban is under the microscope, including the umpires.
Steve Smith’s side will travel to Port Elizabeth with a 1-0 lead in the four-match series, but the vast majority of the post-match analysis is centred on something that didn’t happen on the field.
David Warner and Quinton de Kock’s extraordinary altercation, in which Australia’s enraged vicecaptain was physically restrained by team-mates at tea on day four, remains the talk of the cricket world.
The International Cricket Council has not yet revealed if it has applied any sanctions for the incidents at the game, with the exception of Nathan Lyon being fined 15 per cent of his match fee for his send-off of AB de Villiers.
However, Warner remains in hot water as match referee Jeff Crowe has until tonight (NZ time) to level charges.
The sport’s governing body can also charge players, as ICC chief David Richardson did du Plessis for using a mint to shine the ball in Hobart.
Crowe has already warned both camps about the need to play the game in the right spirit.
Warner and de Kock are obviously under the pump to behave better, but former Australian batsman Simon Katich is among those pondering whether umpires Sundaram Ravi and Kumar
Dharmasena could have done more to extinguish the blowup when it was starting to catch fire.
‘‘This is where the umpires need to step in as soon as they start to hear stuff,’’ former Australia opener Katich told ESPNcricinfo, having called the match.
‘‘Give the warnings to the skippers and get the skippers to control it.
‘‘That obviously hasn’t happened, and now it is tit for tat,
with the teams blaming each other for who started it.
‘‘It’s a shame because what happened on the field obviously lit the fuse for then what has happened off the field. It has overshadowed what was a fantastic test.’’
Du Plessis expressed similar sentiments to Katich in his postmatch press conference.
Ravi and Dharmasena delivered few lectures in the first
test, with the exception of rebuking Kagiso Rabada for his send-off of Warner on day three.
Katich noted it was important Crowe now ‘‘nips this in the bud’’.
‘‘If it is allowed to keep going on, then things are going to get out of control as we saw in the tunnel,’’ he said.
‘‘I look back on my time and I think things might have been pretty tame compared to this stuff.’’