Cricket Australia chided for being soft on Samuels

Melbourne, Jan 24 (IANS): Australian batsman Cameron White has criticised Cricket Australia for its decision to let West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels off with a reprimand following his ugly on-field altercation with spin bowler Shane Warne.

White, a Melbourne Stars batsman, has labelled as “remarkable” the reprimand given to his Melbourne Renegades opponent Marlon Samuels during a match in the Big Bash League earlier this month, reports CMC.

Code of Conduct commissioner John Price ruled that Samuels threw his bat after “extreme provocation” from Warne, who had just thrown a ball that hit the West Indies middle order batsman.

“Being provoked, I don’t think you can use that as an excuse,” White said during an interview in Melbourne.

“It’s remarkable, isn’t it? How many times have you seen someone throw their cricket bat on a cricket field and get (reprimanded) for being extremely provoked? I’ve never seen it before. That’s what the judiciary came up with.”

Warne, who captains Melbourne Stars, was fined and banned for a match after he grabbed the shirt of Samuels during the second innings of the Jan 6 game.

The problem appeared to have started with an incident earlier in the match when Samuels was bowling and seemed to grab the Stars batsman David Hussey, who was turning to complete a second run.

The charge that emerged from that incident, that Samuels “engaged in deliberate or inappropriate physical contact with a player or official”, was dismissed.

White has also refused to apologise for not going to the aid of Samuels when he suffered a severe facial injury from a Lasith Malinga bouncer later in the same match.

“I don’t think he’s very well-liked, definitely not just from the Stars’ point of view but probably in Australian cricket,” White said.

“People think he carries on a bit. There’s probably a few reasons (we didn’t check on him). We were quite busy.”