Boycott: Anderson must be punished if guilty

Cricket365
July 16, 2014

Former England batsman Geoff Boycott feels fast bowler James Anderson should get a harsh punishment if found guilty of shoving and verbally abusing India all-rounder Ravi Jadeja during the first Test.

Anderson was charged by the ICC on Wednesday with misconduct, and could face up to four games on the sidelines if found guilty of getting into an altercation with Jadeja on day two of the Trent Bridge Test.

Boycott feels such altercations are bad for the game, and in his day bowlers were much less likely to directly attack a batsman, and let the ball do the talking for them. The alleged argument was said to continue into the dressing room.

Boycott told <i>Cricinfo</i>: "If anybody's found guilty, and if I had a say in it, I believe he should be punished and punished harshly, that will stop it. I think everybody [found guilty] deserves a stern punishment.

"I didn't see any pushing and I could have easily missed it. If he's found guilty of that, then there's no excuse.

"What is going on in cricket, verbals between players, and particularly bowlers trying to rile batsmen by flagging them off, I don't like it. I've never agreed with it, I don't think there's a place for it in cricket.

"The modern player, in a lot of countries, accepts it as a norm as if they are growing up with it and everybody does it and everybody should do it. They believe it is not hurting cricket. Well, I believe it is.

"Jimmy [Anderson] is known to be one that talks to players. Now what he actually says I don't know, I'm not near enough to hear it and I certainly can't lip-read. But he is known to do a lot of talking. I don't agree with it.

"I've been against some of the great fast bowlers in the world, the great West Indians, they didn't have to flag you off and make crude remarks. They just tried to bowl you out, they tried to knock you out sometimes but that's part of the game.

"They never got involved – [Denniss] Lillee, [Jeff] Thomson. Thomson used to swear under his breath but he never swore at the batsman, he just swore at himself and made expletives when he got a thick edge and it went between slip and gully for four.

"He'd be annoyed and irritated but he wouldn't swear at the batsman. Fred Trueman used to swear and make funny remarks and make you laugh."