ICC World Cup: David Richardson wants players on their best behaviour
Tuesday 20 January 2015 14:20, UK
ICC chief executive David Richardson has made it clear players will be told to keep their cool during the forthcoming World Cup.
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A number of incidents blighted the recent Test series between Australia and India, leading to criticism from former England bowler Jonathan Agnew, while New Zealand great Martin Crowe called for a yellow and red card system to be introduced for offenders.
Richardson feels current protocols to prevent on-field bad behaviour are effective - 12 players have been charged in recent months - and he says disrespectful behaviour will continue to be acted upon by umpires and match officials.
Proactive
"Over the last six months, or even going back further to the last Ashes series, there have been too many examples of player behaviour going too far and overstepping the boundaries of acceptability," he told icc-cricket.com.
"The amount of sledging and disrespect shown by players to each other was bad.
"Since then, we have done a lot of work with our umpires and match referees to ensure they are much more proactive in terms of policing behaviour on the field and - when players do overstep the mark - taking appropriate action."
Richardson points to ICC's disciplinary statistics as evidence that poor standards will not be tolerated, with the most recent penalty being levied to Australia opener David Warner, who was fined half of his match fee for a clash with Rohit Sharma during the Tri-Series match against India on Sunday.
He added: "Over the last three or four months, you have seen 12 ICC code of conduct charges laid against people for exactly that - disrespectful behaviour on the field.
"For the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, it will be no different - and at all pre-event briefings with the teams, the match referees will be making sure that message is delivered loud and clear."
Watch every ball of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup on Sky Sports, starting with co-hosts New Zealand against Sri Lanka on Sky Sports World Cup on Friday 13 February.
