Mohammad Kaif, the former India cricketer, has lashed out at pacer Mohammed Siraj for his shameful conduct witnessed during the day-night pink-ball Test match between India and Australia at the Adelaide Oval that witnessed two separate complaints that the Indian pacer manhandled two Australian cricketers. Kaif said that he came across two incidents of Siraj that he feels have been improper regarding the role model in the sport.
The first one happened on the first day of the Test when Australia was in its first innings. During the 25th over, while batting was in progress, Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne backed after thinking he saw some movement behind the sightscreen where a man was handling beer glasses. The bowler, Siraj, seemed livid and threw the ball to the stumps in sheer anger. Kaif objected to it by saying that it should not be so in any circumstances, let alone a cricketer, not to mention a role model one at that. “You just do not want to be seen as a role model. The kids look up to them and then set the wrong example. It would not be desirable to spoil the image of the gentleman’s sport,” Kaif said in a video posted to social media.
The second juncture included Siraj’s recklessly sending off Travis Head, who hammered a memorable 140 in Australia’s second innings. Head has been in such tremendous nick and was hitting boundaries with everybody, including Siraj, as he had made the historic century on day-night tests in only 111 balls. When Head was out caught in the deep by Kohli off Siraj’s bowling, the pacer gave a bouncer aimed at the batsman’s body, and following that,t Head had words with Siraj.
Both cricketers got into trouble and lost one demerit point each after the ICC match referee was convinced that both men had not observed the code of conduct during the Test match. One may recall Kaif’s comment about the need to set a proper standard for the next generations of cricketers.
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