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Capital fan decked Afridi
By Gulu Ezekiel
NEW DELHI, March 14. — A complaint filed by an Indian cricket fan to the ICC has led to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) fining and banning all-rounder Shahid Afridi for the upcoming Sharjah tournament.
Mr Kapil Rampal, who calls himself “a passionate cricket fan” and runs his own PR agency from the south Delhi locality of Vasant Kunj, brought the incident of Afridi abusing the umpires during the Indo-Pak match at Centurion on 1 March to the notice of ICC communications manager Mr Mark Harrison.
In a 3 March e-mail, Rampal asked: “Has ICC taken note of the volley of abuse that originated from Pakistani cricketers? It was loud enough for everyone to hear. The Indians were abused and even the umpires were not spared, though they couldn’t understand what was being said. Afridi, after his appeal for a catch was turned down screamed loud enough to be heard in millions of homes: “teri maa ki… (your mother’s…)” I’m sure that deserves some attention? You can view the TV replays to confirm what I write.”
Rampal added: “Umpires should not be abused in this manner... David Shepherd and Rudi Koertzen are two of the best in the business... this should not go unpunished.”
He got his reply the next day from Harrison: “ICC does not condone foul language on the field of play. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.” On Thursday, Mr Rampal was informed by Harrison that the PCB had acted on the basis of the complaint which was taken up by the ICC and banned Afridi from next month’s Sharjah three-nation tournament as well as fining him half his match fee for the Centurion match which India won by six wickets.
“The PCB today fined Shahid Afridi and banned him from the Sharjah tournament, as a result of the incident you noted in the Pakistan v India match. I hope you feel that this matter has now been dealt with adequately,” wrote Harrison. With fans like these...
(The author is a freelance journalist)
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