India vs Sri Lanka: When things come to a head, butting is not a proper response

Yashasvi Jaiswal was less than five years old when the French footballer Zenedine Zidane headbutted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the final of the 2006 World Cup football. It earned Zidane a red card in the final match of his career.

Zidane claimed that the defender had insulted his sister (professional lip readers couldn’t agree on exactly what was said) as justification for the headbutt eight minutes from the final whistle.

And now the headbutt has taken centre stage in another sport, one less likely to have witnessed one, cricket. Jaiswal and Sri Lanka’s fast bowler Asitha Fernando had an altercation after Jaiswal had been bowled. It is never a pleasant sight when an international bowler gives a batter a ‘send off’ as commentators delicately put it. You don’t need to be a lip-reader to make out that it is seldom commiseration or an invitation to a party that constitutes a ‘send off’.

In this case, Jaiswal’s helmet was dangerously close to making contact with Fernando. If there’s one thing worse than a regular headbutt, it is a headbutt with helmet on. Both players were fined 25% of their match fees; I am not sure if the DRS could have confirmed if there was a touch.

Ignore the provocation

Most international players ignore such provocation, and walk on, perhaps plotting revenge with their own fast bowlers if they carry a grudge. On one memorable occasion, India’s then captain and opening batter Sunil Gavaskar, given a send off by Dennis Lillee, the Australian fast bowler, nearly forfeited a Test in Melbourne by asking his partner Chetan Chauhan to walk off with him (Gavaskar has often said that was the one act on a cricket field he regretted) before good sense returned.

Jaiswal is 24, and a world class opener who has worked hard to get to where he has. The much-repeated story of his early life and obsession with cricket is an inspiration. He has a certainty in his own destiny that top athletes possess. A will power that can only be admired.

But sledging is not new in cricket — it could take the form of insults against family, physical drawbacks or background — and players have learnt to live with it. Jaiswal has survived far more than Fernando can imagine; players snap when taken to the dark areas of their lives. To ignore provocation needs a particular temperament, and Jaiswal will discover this soon enough.

Indian cricket has produced champions with great willpower, from C.K. Nayudu and Kapil Dev to Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble. They didn’t suffer fools gladly, nor did they react physically to insults, perceived or otherwise. They responded with bat or ball, and that is the more permanent riposte.

After a Test at Lord’s where there had been some needle, K.L. Rahul said, “If you go after one of our guys, you are going after the whole team, all eleven of us will come right back.” Standing up for a friend or colleague is wonderful, but it must not degenerate into a public spat. There are subtler ways of getting a message across. But like justice being done, it appears as if revenge must not only be taken but seen to be taken.

“If you don’t know what (Fernando) said, then please don’t make your judgement. If anyone crosses the line we need to let them know this India will fight and reply,” was Jaiswal’s response to a commentator who had urged restraint.

‘New India’

This is the motto of the so-called ‘New India’, which needs to assert itself at every turn, and one which is determined to show all and sundry who is boss. It may not be long before, like the national hockey team, the cricket team too wears orange for white ball cricket. After all, blue is the colour of the sky, and can be very confusing for the blue-wearing players and even television viewers.

There is a school of thought which believes that what is said (or done) on the field of play should remain there. It is a good argument, but when things cross a line, it brings the game itself into disrepute. Cricket is a non-contact sport; may it ever remain thus.