mind games
on the sports field; such an integral part of the professional game, is usually fascinating TV. A mouthful of rubbish or a shirt tug on a soccer field can often lead to a crushing tackle or a sickening head-butt(as was the case with zizou). Baseball pitchers often throw a fastball on the inside of the plate at an opponent hitter and some sort of retaliation follows . In a recent episode a couple of weeks back, alex rodriguez copped one for distracting a third-baseman during a routine play.
The reason i bring this up is that for every act that crosses limits, the on field umpire has the power to eject players for breaking the spirit of the game. Sadly, this is not the case on a cricket field. In the recent test series between India and england, there were some very silly and very serious altercations on the field.
In my opinion, there is a very simple way to prevent future occurrences of similar episodes. Eject the bowler from the game and penalize the bowling team 1o runs if the umpire deems it intentional. Right now, the bowler is allowed two beamers (intentional or otherwise) before he is barred from bowling again in the same innings. I can bet the ball wont be slipping out of the fast bowlers’ hands as frequently as they do these days.