The Hindu : Sport : Cook defends England’s conduct

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Thursday, Aug 02, 2007
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Cook defends England’s conduct

LONDON: England batsman Alastair Cook insists there was nothing wrong with his side’s conduct during its controversial second Test defeat against India.

The tourists were angered by what they perceived as gamesmanship from England, with paceman Zaheer Khan infuriated after jelly-bean sweets were left on the Trent Bridge wicket by an England player as a supposed prank while he was batting.

Several reports claimed Cook was guilty of deliberately dropping the sweets during a drinks break, but the Essex opener insists he was not to blame and sees no reason why England should apologise.

“I have to say I am disappointed by the way the great ‘jelly-bean’ saga has been blown up out of all proportion,” Cook told the Daily Telegraph.

“I am also disappointed to find myself accused in some quarters of supplying the offending sweets, particularly as I am a fruit pastille man myself.

“Personally I don’t think there was any problem with the way this Test match was played.

“As a cricket lover as well as a cricket player, I like it when two teams go hard at each other and put everything into the contest. And I don’t think anyone has overstepped the mark over the past five days.

“You’ve got to remember that every player out there is playing for his country. England have a proud record to defend in Test matches, especially at home, and I think it is right that we should play our cricket with intensity and positive energy and we’ll look to continue with that at The Oval next week.”

“It got out of hand. Everyone has learnt something from it and hopefully we won’t see it again,” Moores said.

But England opener Alastair Cook, the prime suspect in the incident, refused to agree that the incident had any bearing on the result of the match.

“The suggestion that it could have affected the final result is quite ridiculous,” he said.

He was supported by captain Michael Vaughan, who said “there was a time when it may have gone over the line. I don’t think that the line has been crossed. It was two teams which wanted to win.”

No ICC action

The International Cricket Council has, however, decided to take no action against either side for the incident and other examples of “sledging” — verbal abuse of opponents — during the match.

“The matter must be raised by a player to the match umpires who will in turn report it to the match referee,” an ICC spokesman was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

“The issue is whether or not they have acted in the spirit of the game. If the match referee deems it necessary, the matter will be referred to the ICC and a code of conduct hearing would be held.

“There was an incident a few years ago in a women’s Test match where ‘Love Hearts’ sweets were thrown onto the pitch while England players were batting. There was no code of conduct hearing because no player reported it,” the spokesman added. — PTI

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