Cricket Australia to take stringent measures against discriminatory abuse and sledging

What’s the story?

Cricket Australia is contemplating widening its scope for offences committed by players related to on-field abuses. The board is likely to add penalties that could be as stringent as life bans, especially when talking about incidents related to slurs on sexuality.

In case you didn’t know

James Pattinson was recently slapped with a one-match Test ban for using homophobic slurs against Queensland’s Cameron Gannon during a Sheffield Shield encounter between Victoria and Queensland at the MCG.

A few months ago, West Indian fast bowler Shannon Gabriel copped a four-match ban when he used abusive language of a similar ilk against Joe Root during England’s tour to the West Indies.

The heart of the matter

Once the current cricketing summer culminates, CA is set to take into account its existing behavioural codes and mould it in accordance with the new regulations brought about by the ICC in August 2019.

The apex body’s anti-racism code adopted a no-tolerance approach towards all forms of discrimination, meaning that such offences would have greater punishments.

In 2018-19, the CA behaviour code was modified as the definition and scope of a level two or a level three offence pertaining to abusing an opposition player, by referring to either the player or a member of his/her family was widened.

Moreover, they also included a more severe level three charge of abuse of any player on the basis of their race, gender, sexuality or religion.

As things stand, the CA looks primed to implement the new changes at the end of the summer, meaning that it could be completely in sync with the ICC’s latest safeguards to protect players from such behaviour.

What’s next?

Cricket Australia have taken a brave move to identify the on-field issues plaguing cricket currently and evolve a suitable enough mechanism. However, it remains to be seen when it does eventually come into effect.