Kagiso Rabada’s ban was justified; South Africa got what they deserved but the fans didn’t

SAY what you like about cricket needing fire and animation but there are rules and Kagiso Rabada just keeps breaking them. It pains me to say this — the ban was justified. South Africa got what they deserved … the rest of us didn’t.

Proteas will appeal Kagiso Rabada’s two-Test ban for breaching code of conduct

IMAGINE if English enforcer Harold Larwood had been banned after two Tests of the Bodyline series?

Imagine Jeff Thomson getting done for dissent and sent packing halfway through the earth-quaking 1974-75 series against the Poms?

Or Glenn McGrath being pinged midway through the famous 1995 series in the West Indies when the home side lost a series for the first time in 15 years?

This is the sort of historical tide-turner Kagiso Rabada’s two-Test ban for shouldering Steve Smith in Port Elizabeth could be if, as appears likely, his appeal is dismissed.

A potentially epic event in the history of the sport could become nothing more than a big tease, finishing not with an exclamation mark but a question mark.

Yes, he is truly that good.

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South Africa's bowler Kagiso Rabada celebrates a wicket with team mates

The good news for Brisbane fans is that the next time Australia faces Rabada in a Test it is likely to be at the Gabba — the bad news that its four years away in 2022. His flame could have burnt out by then.

Talk about deflating …

For all that — and it pains me to say this — the ban was justified.

South Africa got what they deserved … the rest of us didn’t.

The instant I saw the incident on television one word flashed through my mind … “gone.’’

He had to be. Not for that incident alone but because it was the latest in a series of indiscretions.

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis must accept his share of the blame for cajoling Rabada rather than pulling him into line.

You can say what you like about the game needing fire and animation but there are rules and Rabada just keeps breaking them.

Proteas will appeal Kagiso Rabada’s two-Test ban for breaching code of conduct

And he is never going to change while his captain keeps making excuses for him. Du Plessis is in denial. When you put that to him he denies it which only proves the point.

Rababa had to go and I’m saying this with a heavy heart because world cricket has been craving for a bowler like him for too many years.

Cricket these days is full of flat track batting bullies who swagger around in T20 and 50 over cricket making bowlers look like fools.

Most Test wickets these days are flat and featureless and bowlers have such heavy year-round workloads the age of the tearaway quick seem long gone.

And then along comes Rabada to shake up the tree and remind everyone that some of these batting bully boys are overrated and flawed.

The way he clean bowled a floundering David Warner or trapped a well set Usman Khawaja in front of his sticks just before stumps was fast bowling of the rarest and most exquisite kind.

When he has the ball in hand Rabada is as venomous and talented as any 22-year-old fast man has ever been.

It’s when he lets it go that the problems start.

Sadly there are no excuses for him being naive for as the son of a brain surgeon father and lawyer mother he had a privileged upbringing.

The more you watch Rabada the more you appreciate Allan Border because Rabada has the fire and space of the famous West Indian fast bowlers of the 1980s who tried to gang tackle the great Border but never quite managed to.