Fast bowling legend Michael Holding calls for red cards to end ugly send-offs
BOWLING legend and Kagiso Rabada’s mentor Michael Holding is sick seeing ugly send-offs, declaring it’s time to red card offending players out of the game. VOTE: do you agree?
Cricket
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cricket. Followed categories will be added to My News.
BOWLING legend Michael Holding is fed up with ugly send-offs and sledging and has declared it’s time to red card offending players out of the game.
South African teammates have slammed loose cannon spearhead Kagiso Rabada for the erratic behaviour which has the most dangerous bowler in the world resigned to being rubbed out for the rest of the series.
The official verdict from his code of conduct hearing is yet to be handed down by match referee Jeff Crowe, but it’s understood Rabada will be suspended for two matches.
Rabada’s shocking discipline has dismayed West Indian great Holding who has served as somewhat of a mentor to the 22-year-old tearaway being compared to Malcolm Marshall.
In the one match, Rabada physically brushed shoulders with Steve Smith upon getting him out, and then despite being charged and facing a ban, he came out and roared in David Warner’s face in another heated send-off.
SIDDLE: Time to curb your enthusiasm, Rabada
AB: The man who want revenge on Australia
Holding has called on umpires to start using the ‘red and yellow card’ system introduced by the International Cricket Council late last year in a bid to clean up the game following a series in South Africa which has given the sport a black eye.
Under the new code, umpires have the power to send unruly players from the field, either temporarily or for the match, as well as award penalty runs to the opposition.
Holding said it was time for match officials to crack down on the field and call on the full range of powers at their disposal.
He’s adamant that if yellow and red cards are threatened and then dished out, players would immediately respond and button their lips.
Holding says the penny has to drop for Rabada to realise his potential as a fast bowler of rare class.
“When people behave like that, you just wonder, why, why is that necessary?,” Holding said on SuperSport.
“When you’re young you make mistakes but you don’t keep on making the same mistakes.
“Kagiso gets a little bit carried away. I have spoken to him a few times about it, to try and get him to relax a bit.”
Rabada put his side in a match-winning position in Port Elizabeth, but at the same time managed to leave their series hopes in jeopardy.
Teammates will be filthy at Rabada’s selfish behaviour which came despite the clear warning from match referee Jeff Crowe that a continuation of the unacceptable carry-on from the first Test in Durban wouldn’t be tolerated.
Proteas star AB de Villiers said Rabada needed to pull his head in.
“He’s got to be smarter and he knows that. I don’t know what is going to happen to him after this Test but if he is around for the next Test match I think he would have learnt from his mistakes,” said de Villiers.
“There was a lot of emotion from that last Test match going into this one and once again as a fast bowler you want to prove things to people and you want to show everyone you belong on this stage.
“In a way I understand it. Dale, when he’s on fire, you don’t even understand what’s going on in that mind, you just see eyes and all sorts of stuff.
“Luckily for him he’s never sort of crossed that line. But I think it’s because we get to him. We’ll try and get to KG before he does the damage.”
De Villiers admitted that senior players may have to even form a physical wall around Rabada to stop him from getting in the face of batsmen when he gets them out.
Australian fast bowling coach David Saker admits Rabada’s pending suspension would make a seismic change in the series going into the last two Tests in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
“It’d be handy for us not to have to face him, that’s for sure,” said Saker.
“He’s been probably one of the outstanding bowlers of the series so far and with his pace and the way he strikes, I think his strike rate’s one of the better ones in the world.
“It would be beneficial if we didn’t have to face him but that’s in the hands of other people so we’ll let that play its course.
“South Africa will look at that and put things in place, you would think. That’s not our problem, I’ll let SA deal with that one.”