Australian legends have their say after Kagiso Rabada received a match ban

Kagiso Rabada is a prolific young talent from South Africa and has been able to prove his stature at the International level by being one of best young cricketers South Africa has ever produced. The 22-year-old lad seems to be a regular face in coloured as well as white jersey from quite some time now.

Currently, South Africa is on a long tour to for a 4-match Test series against the host, England. In their first game, the host thrashed the visitors by a hefty margin. What proves to be more disheartening for the visitors is, their main striker with the ball, Kagiso Rabada has received a match ban for breaching the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Code of Conduct.

Interestingly, the 22-year-old lad received a match ban after ‘celebrating’ the dismissal of allrounder Ben Stokes in first innings. However, a few Australian players have raised their voice for Rabada and have joined the chorus of support for him in the wake of his one-Test ban and condemned the use of stump mics in international cricket broadcasts.

Peter Siddle

Australian fast bowler Peter Siddle was the first one to raise the voice against Code of Conduct and showed his disappointment by saying, said the indiscriminate use of stump mics had effectively robbed a Test of one of its star players.

“It’s always the case that the TV company comes out afterwards and says ‘sorry, just a little mix-up and it shouldn’t have been heard’,” Siddle told The Unplayable podcast.

“A similar thing happened to Michael Clarke in the Ashes in 2013-14 having a go at Jimmy Anderson. At the end of the day the TV company comes out and just apologizes. It has to be stopped … there’s a bit of emotion on the field, it’s just a bit of fun, it’s a tough contest out there and sometimes the emotion comes out,” he said.

“Sometimes it doesn’t sound great but it’s not meant (to cause) any harm to the person at the other end, it’s just a bit of anger or frustration. We’re going to miss one of the most exciting players in Test cricket at the moment, he’s going to miss a Test because of someone else’s mishap,” Siddle further stated.

Jason Gillespie

Another former Australian fast bowler, Jason Gillespie termed the stump mics as ‘unnecessary’ and feels it wasn’t necessary for the broadcasters to bring the subject in limelight.

“I’m a big believer that the stump mics should be turned down,” he told cricket.com.au. I believe they’re up too much, I don’t think you need to be hearing the players talking to each other, I don’t think that’s necessary. The umpires are mic’d up, why do we need to hear the players talk? That’s just asking for trouble,” he said.

The new PNG coach added that the incident should prompt the ICC to rethink the demerit point system introduced last year that has seen Rabada banned.

“On the face of it, it seems harsh but it wasn’t just that one incident, it was a cumulation of incidents that added up and ended being a ban,” Gillespie said. “I get that but I don’t have to necessarily agree with it. “We want to see our best players playing our game. If you’re leaving the best players out for what a lot of people would see as not a massive offence – is that the right thing?

“We bang on about over rates all the time and we don’t see many people missing games for a complete disregard of over rates time and time again. I personally just want to see the best players play and Rabada is a fantastic young cricketer and we want to see him playing international cricket,” he concluded.