Jellybeangate

Tempers flared and players from both sides lost control in the 2nd test between India and England at Trent Bridge. Sree Santh has already been fined half his match fee for shoulder barging Michael Vaughan and has also accused of deliberately bowling beamers and no-balls during his spell.

Elsewhere, some serious argy-bargy occurred between Kevien Pietersen and Zaheer Khan, after Khan noticed jelly beans appearing on the pitch whilst he was batting. Having cleared one off the pitch, more turned up, convincing him it wasn’t an accident. He then gestured toward KP, raising his bat in protest. KP didn’t back down and returned some verbals.

Such behaviour shouldn’t exist in any level of cricket, and that it is happening at the highest level is pathetic. There’s a difference between being competitive and cheating. Allegations that Santh was intentionally trying to injure KP are a little far-fetched, but England players putting jelly beans on the pitch in a bid to distract Khan is stupid behaviour from a team incapable of playing proper cricket. Fortunately, Khan was able to let his game speak for itself (despite brandishing his bat towards the England slip cordon), in scoring some useful runs and then taking a match-winning 5fer in England’s second innings. Such childish behaviour took the gloss off some otherwise thrilling cricket, including runs from Tendulkar and Vaughan and bowling from Sidebottom and Khan.

I sincerely hope that the event is investigated thoroughly and that any players found guilty of throwing jelly beans at the Indian players be properly reprimanded for bringing the game in to disrepute.