The Hindu : Sport : Jelly beans incident spurred me on: Zaheer

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Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007
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Jelly beans incident spurred me on: Zaheer

Special Correspondent

Nottingham: The second Test between India and England has been filled with chatter — all of it passed off as nothing not seen before and within the spirit of the game — but Zaheer Khan, late on Monday, said England’s actions in placing jelly beans on the pitch were ‘insulting.’

Zaheer said he found jelly beans on the crease when he had came out to bat on Sunday, and the incident had spurred him to bowl better; he took five for 75 to leave India at the doorstep of victory.

“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.

“I didn’t like it, and I went up to them and told them ‘Guys what is this all about, I am here to play cricket.’ They came at me and I was upset about it and I just reacted accordingly.”

Zaheer brandished his bat at Kevin Pietersen, whose words “you’ve got the wrong man” were caught on the stump microphone.

Zaheer said, “I did not know exactly where it was coming from, maybe I picked the wrong one. But I just was not bothered at that time; I felt it was insulting. Though I was not sure where it was coming from, but definitely it might have come from a fielder because when I removed it should not have come there again. It came again and I could not take it.”

Collingwood’s comment

Paul Collingwood’s comment was cryptic — “yeah, Zaheer came in and wasn’t obviously too pleased; I think he prefers the blue ones to the pink ones to be honest” — but he didn’t deny the incident.

It might seem like a prank, but Law 42, which deals with unfair play, doesn’t look kindly at it. Under 42.4, “It is unfair for any member of the fielding side deliberately to attempt to distract the striker while he is preparing to receive or receiving a delivery.”

In the event of a repeat occurrence, the laws provide for the awarding of five penalty runs.

Monday had its incidents as well: Sreesanth nearly nailed Kevin Pietersen with a beamer; then, to Collingwood, he over-stepped by over a metre to deliver a bouncer.

Asked about the beamer, Collingwood said, “It does happen in cricket and Sreesanth is probably the only one who knows if he meant it or not, certainly from our point of view, we’ll take it as a mistake, and there’s no hard feelings there.”

What about the bouncer? Did he think Sreesanth deliberately over-stepped? “It felt quite quick that one to be honest,” said Collingwood. “I know which one you meant. You’re going to have to ask him.”

It said much that Rahul Dravid replaced Sreesanth immediately.

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