Cricket: Racial abuse shocks Habib

Two-Test England cricketer Aftab Habib said he has never encountered abuse on a field to match what he has endured in New Zealand this season.

The 16-year professional has been employed by the Taranaki Cricket Association as a club professional but, in a game between his New Plymouth United club and Hawera, he walked from the field retiring his innings to "make a stand" following what he said was three minutes of sustained abuse.

Habib believes New Zealand, and in particular Taranaki, needs more umpires at club level willing to make a stand against poor conduct.

"It's been disappointing more than anything else," Habib said of the level of abuse directed at him. "Cricket is supposed to be played in the right manner and language is a big concern in cricket in general.

"The higher level you play, and we saw this with New Zealand against South Africa, you're going to get done for it. There needs to be a standard set in club cricket as well.

"The umpires need to have a big say and it has to be dealt with."

Habib said he had no problem with the idea of sledging, as long as it was carried out in good humour and in the knowledge that cricket is only a game.

"Sledging to an extent is not a problem," he said. When three Hawera players rounded on him for three minutes after an appeal for caught at the wicket was rejected, Habib said the situation had gone way beyond sledging.

"It was completely out of order," said Habib, who played two tests for England against New Zealand in '99.

After being repeatedly told to **** off by the Hawera players, and in the absence of any meaningful intervention from the umpires, he retired from the crease in the belief that 16 years as a professional entitled him to a modicum of respect.

"If I'd stayed batting, I felt it would have carried on because the umpires weren't dealing with it how I felt they should."

Unbelievably, he was later to face accusations of bringing the game into disrepute for walking off at a hearing carried out by the Taranaki Cricket Association [TCA]. As in the laws of cricket, Habib said he was well within his rights to retire his innings at any stage.

The three main Hawera transgressors received wet-bus-ticket-slapped-over-wrist suspensions of up to three weeks. It is understood some clubs are embarrassed by the lack of meaningful action taken by the association.

Graeme Reardon, chairman of TCA, said the heated incident could be put down to "the class of player they [Hawera] thought they had got out". He said the association was concerned by the incident but that it had been dealt with.

As to whether the sentences were too light, he said: "Well, it was player against player and not player against umpire," indicating that abuse of an umpire carries far heftier penalties. "It was an isolated incident."

New Zealanders' attitude to sledging is under scrutiny from the top level to the bottom. In his book, Shane Warne said New Zealanders were the worst sledgers he had come across. In first-class cricket a few years ago, sledging had become such an issue that the abuse of certain players had come to notification at New Zealand Cricket board level.

On the recent tour to South Africa, the antics of some Black Caps were placed under the spotlight by vigilant television cameras.

In Taranaki it has long been tolerated and even celebrated as a mark of 'mental toughness'. Another English professional, Adrian Rollins, who has West Indian heritage, claimed he was racially abused in a Taranaki club match, although the defendant claimed he had used the term "slack ****" and not "black ****".

In another Taranaki club incident that remained hushed-up, former Pakistan A player Zaheer Abbasi was racially taunted when he was dismissed and called a "terrorist".

Habib has played in Nelson and Christchurch before but said this was easily the worst abuse he had faced.

He said the onus had to be on every New Zealand club to develop at least one capable umpire to be used by each association.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY