Umm...Yeah. 6 sixers! Unbelievable. The Eng-NZ match had its lunch break, so I switched over to the SA-Netherlands game. Herchelle Gibbs just hit 36 runs in an over. That is just unbelievable. From Cricinfo...
29.6 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, He has done it! One-day record. No one has hit six sixes in a row. Gibbs stands alone in that zone. And the minnow bashing continues! Full and outside off and bludgeoned over long off 29.5 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Short in length, on the off stump line and Gibbs rocks back and swat-pulls it over wide long off. Simply amazing. What a batsman. This is pure violence! 29.4 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Wah Wah! Low full toss and guess where this went Yep. A slap slog and it went over deep midwicket! He is going to go for 6 sixes in this over! 29.3 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Carnage! Flatter one this time but it makes no difference to Gibbs. He just stands there and delivers. This one also has been sucked over long off 29.2 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Murder! Floated on the leg and middle stump line and Gibbs sends it soaring over long-off. 29.1 van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Violence! Gibbs charged down the track and hoicked it over long on.
Here is the video, where through the stump microphone, you can clearly hear Herschelle Gibbs cursing. His action resulted in a 2 test ban for Gibbs. Gibbs father is understandably ticked off, at what he feels are double standards of the ICC. He cites the abuse hurled at the South Africans during their tour to Australia.
This issue of stump microphones has even come up. The secretary of the South African Cricket Association and the Mickey Arthur, the coach, both have reservations about the microphone.
"Gibbs says he has not made any racist remarks nor has he been racist to any one and therefore he has not transgressed any rule of the ICC regarding racism," Tony Irish, secretary of the South African Cricketers Association, said. Irish added that the association was also concerned about the negative effects of stump microphones, as far as the privacy of players is concerned.
No doubt Gibbs was provoked. But he was just pissed. I don't think he was being racist. Calling someone people 'f***ing Pakistanis' is just cursing at them. They are Pakistanis after all. Nothing racist about calling them that. (Unless of course you want to get into the nitty gritty of it all, where calling someone 'Paki' is offensive, especially in the UK!)
The ICC should perhaps be a bit clear about the racism aspect of their accusations. If anything, he should be banned for aggression, and lack of spirit or self control, or cursing at people or at a country, or whatever else players usually get banend for when they go on a tirade.
That being said, I read somewhere that he thought the spectators provoking him should belong in a zoo. Is that really racist? Though we may not hear the entire story either. Perhaps the Gibbs told the ICC more that we hear in this video? Either way, he has appealed and will probably end up playing in this next game. In this ultra sensitive era, things always seem to get blown out of proportion. People have to be clear about what they mean. One can't say this or that for the fear of being politically incorrect. Most of it is well-founded and understandable, but exceptions such as this incident arise. The people who should have been banned (and probably have been) are the rowdy people in the crowd. We have no room in our sport for hooligans. Gibbs apologized for his lack on control, and I suspect he is trying to get the ICC to recognize that though he was angry, and perhaps deserves some punishment, it shouldn't be because he said something racist. I have to agree with him. The label of 'racist' needs to be removed from the ICC's accusations.
