South Africa ask ICC to take action against Sulieman Benn for squabble with Dale Steyn
Sulieman Benn’s issues with discipline continue to haunt him and he has run into another issue which could snowball into his own cricket taking action against the left-arm spinner. Already under a lot of pressure for his role in the controversies against his own captain in the ODI series that preceded the Test matches that just ended against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, Benn seems to have rubbed the wrong side of the South Africans as well.
So much so, that the South African management has spoken to the ICC to have some kind of an action taken against Benn for his alleged misbehaviour in the squabble with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 Steyn. Steyn had been fined 100% of his match fee for his offence, namely spitting towards Benn and getting into an altercation with the bowler. While Steyn was fined his entire match fee, and Roach had to give away 50% of his match fee, Benn was allowed to go scot-free.
Steyn had spat at the bowler after he had got out and cameras had actually shown Benn follow the path of where Steyn was spitting. There had been a huge exchange between the two, Steyn and Benn immediately before this spitting incident and that had added fuel to fire.
The South African manager on that tour of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760, Mohammad Moosajee, said that Steyn was definitely at fault and had even apologised to the match referee after paying up the fine. However, he also added that the spitting had occurred, “...after lots of provocation and there was also retaliation after the incident.”
So, the manager added that the South African management had decided to lay a charge against the bowler and complained to the ICC regarding the same. The application against Benn will now go through the review process that has set for such incidents. It was, in fact, a surprise that Benn was allowed to go away free without any kind of a penalty levied on him, given his past record. Even earlier, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Benn-c47745 has got involved in controversies time and again, and his last issue was with his own captain Gayle in an ODI. In the fourth ODI, Benn had been asked by Gayle to bowl over the wicket but Benn had flatly refused to do so. An incensed Gayle had ordered Benn to go off the field and did not allow him to bowl more than four overs in that game.
Benn had then not been allowed to play in the fifth ODI of that series despite being in the squad for the game. Even before that, Benn had had an argument with the two Australian batsmen, Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin and there had been a lot of finger pointing around the same. Benn has had a healthy knack of getting under the opponents’ skins and that is thus shown in the number of trips he has had to the match referee.
Jeff Crowe, the match referee had also accepted that while Steyn’s behaviour could have been avoided, it had been provoked by the bowler. He said that the same can be explained but cannot be excused. Benn is only 15 Test matches and 18 ODIs old at international level. He has a test match bowling average of 41 and in ODIs of 49, but possesses a decent economy rate of 4.32 in the ODI version of the game.
In another story, fast bowler Kemar Roach was fined 50% of his match fee for getting involved in a tiff with Jacques Kallis on the last day of the Test match. Kallis had led his side to a comfortable win despite Roach picking up three wickets.
Tags: