(Letter to the Sports Editor)
WE can all agree that Denesh Ramdin’s little note to Sir Viv was childish, silly and even stupid. Lots of players do and say silly stuff. What he did not do, however, is insult anyone. Sir Viv made some comments about Ramdin that was spot on.
Now, Mr Ramdin did not take too kindly to Sir Viv’s harsh assessment of his performance and so apparently Mr Ramdin was motivated to go out and score a century.
Perhaps Sir Viv should start saying negative stuff about all the West Indian players and then maybe West Indies may win a few matches.
Anyway, all Ramdin did was act schoolboyish when he raised that piece of paper. What harm did it do to Sir Viv or anyone else is beyond me.
As silly and stupid as Ramdin’s note was, it was not offensive to anyone and in fact, the act only served to tarnish a good century by Mr Ramdin himself.
If the ICC is going to fine a player for something like this, then what about the commentators who say negative things about players all the time.
Boycott had called Afridi a ‘stupid’ cricketer with ‘no brains’. I agree with Boycott, but does that not count as insulting? Why is it okay for a commentator to say something negative about a player (true as it may be) and it’s not okay for the player to say, “Well, I’ll show you, how about this now, what do you have to say? Is this not basically what Ramdin did? How about the ICC imposing a fine on those commentators who openly said that Shiv is a selfish player? Now, that’s an insult on the man’s character, is it not?
Players, ex players, officials, management, et al, are all too thin-skinned these days. We saw this with the WICB’s over-reaction to Chris Gayle’s interview and we saw this just recently when Kevin Pietersen’s
was fined for questioning the qualifications of commentator Nick Knight.
There are no standard rules about this stuff. The ICC is acting like the WICB and they are making up the rules as they go along.
So, enough about what Ramdin did. I just hope he scores many more centuries for West Indies and if he can produce a note for each one, hey we’ll all take it as his signature move.
We have seen players kiss the pitch, raise their bats, make the sign of a cross and some do the Sajda. Ramdin, well, he pulls out a note!