Virat Kohli should be suspended to avoid cricket becoming a contact sport.
Otherwise thousands of juniors will not only be emulating the audacious ramps and scoops from fearless debutant Sam Konstas in front of a near sell-out Boxing Day crowd at the MCG, they will also be shoulder-charging opponents.
Kohli should be ashamed that as a former Indian captain and player of such enormous standing in the game, he set such an appalling example to all those seeking to emulate their heroes.
Were India really so rattled by a teenager taking down the world’s best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, during the biggest day on the cricketing calendar that their most famous current player felt the need to become physical?
How else to explain Kohli barging into Konstas as he was wandering down the pitch at the end of the 10th over to talk with batting partner Usman Khawaja?
Konstas had exploded in the seventh over, ramping Bumrah for two fours and a six. Two balls before the Kohli confrontation the 19-year-old had given himself room to Mohammed Siraj and smote a ball through point to the boundary.
It appears Kohli will be fined and not suspended, which merely confirms what most of the cricket world already believes. There are two sets of rules, one for India and another for every other nation.
It will mean that for all the camaraderie generated among players of various nations by the IPL, not much has really changed since Harbhajan Singh beat a charge of racially abusing Andrew Symonds by calling him a monkey during the Sydney Test 17 years ago.
During that tawdry episode, match referee Mike Proctor found Harbhajan guilty and suspended him for three matches. However a furious Board of Control for Cricket in India appealed and threatened to abandon the tour, which would have been financially disastrous for Cricket Australia.
Harbhajan’s batting partner Sachin Tendulkar claimed during the original hearing that he heard nothing but insisted during the appeal that Harbhajan had said something unprintable about Symonds’ mother in Hindi, “maa ki” , which had been misheard as monkey.
Cricket Australia abandoned Symonds to save the tour and that fundamental lack of support had a profound impact on Symonds. It was also the end of Procter’s career as a match referee.
Sunil Gavaskar wrote that Procter was “always going to go against the brown man, when he was up against the white man”.
Sam Konstas celebrates his 50 on debut (Photo by Daniel Pockett – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
Procter became persona non grata in India. The Cricket Club of India found no record of the honorary life membership they had awarded him in the 1990s, and he was prevented from officiating as a match referee in the 2009 IPL, which was moved to South Africa.
So how strong will seasoned match referee Andy Pycroft be in this Test? The former Zimbabwe international will no doubt be aware that Jay Shah, the 36-year-old son of India’s Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah, has recently become chairman of the International Cricket Council.
It looks like Kohli will get nothing more than a slap on the wrist with a fine.
Earlier this week I wrote that India’s behaviour off the field on this tour was precious and paranoid. It looks like they’re still untouchable.
Thankfully Kolhi’s collision with Konstas appeared to have no immediate impact on the youngest debutant ever to open the batting for Australia, except to spur him on. Konstas took 18 from Bumrah’s next over, including another two fours and a six.
It was an audacious entry to Test cricket. After taking the first over of the match from Bumrah in front of one of the biggest crowds Kostas will ever play in front of, he played and missed defending four of the first six balls as they left him off the pitch.
It took 14 balls for either Konstas or Khawaja to put bat on ball, with the youngster squeezing a two behind square leg. Then two balls later Konstas unsuccessfully attempted a ramp.
In Bumrah’s next over he tried again and missed. This kid had obviously not been told that Australia’s innings was longer than 20 overs. In Test cricket you play properly.
Except playing properly across the first three Tests had left Khawaja with a series average of 12.6, Mitch Marsh 13.8, the dropped Nathan McSweeney 14.4 and Marnus Labuschagne 16.4. By contrast Travis Head had thrown the bat for 409 runs at 81.8.
So Konstas gave up defending and missing and took up swinging and missing. When he began connecting it gave Australia the opening stand they have been desperately seeking and Bumrah’s aura began to fade. Going into Boxing Day Bumrah had 21 wickets at an average of 10.9 for the series.
When Konstas was out for 60 from 65 balls defending, he had dominated an opening partnership of 89 at better than four an over. It was Australia’s best since Khawaja and David Warner added 90 against Pakistan on Boxing Day last year.
It will be both exciting and extraordinary if Konstas can continue such a high risk, high reward strategy. However the hype the NSW tyro has generated may help sell out the Sydney Test.
It will be interesting to see if Kohli is allowed to play.