Tensions boil as trio charged over ‘terrible’ incident

Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson and Sulieman Benn have been charged with bringing the game into disrepute after a series of ugly, physical exchanges on day two of the final Test between Australia and the West Indies.

Haddin is believed to have pleaded guilty to the charge, with the official ICC verdicts to follow overnight.

In an episode described as “terrible” by Cricket Australia chairman Jack Clarke, Johnson and Benn initially bumped into each other when Johnson was attempting a run at the WACA ground, and two balls later Haddin became involved.

His verbal provocation of Benn saw the Caribbean spinner threaten to hurl the ball at Haddin, and the Australian ‘keeper’s subsequent words brought tensions to an even higher pitch.

Benn pointed his finger angrily towards Haddin as the players converged at the end of the over, and when Johnson brushed into Benn’s line the pair had a brief shoving match that required intervention by umpire Billy Bowden.

Match referee Chris Broad charged the provocative Haddin, Johnson and Benn under the ICC code of conduct, meaning all could face a fine of up to 50 per cent of their match fees.

West Indies skipper Chris Gayle said Benn had not instigated any of the contact.

“Benn wasn’t involved in that, if you watch the television you saw who made physical contact,” he said.

“We’ll be discussing it with the match referee.” Though he admitted to not seeing the start of the incident, Clarke said any instances of physical contact were “an absolute no no”.

“No one wants to see that, no, it’s terrible,” he said.

“I am not going to prejudge anything. I didn’t see the start of the incident.

“There’s systems to handling matters, it’s got to go through match referees and ICC things before we start getting involved.

“(Physical contact) is an absolute no no, I think we all accept that.”

Broad suspended Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir for making physical contact with Australian allrounder Shane Watson in the third Test at New Delhi in 2008, a decision that was upheld despite an appeal by the BCCI.

Australian batsman Marcus North described Benn as an “unusual” case.

“He’s an unusual guy,” North said.

“This is Test cricket and there’s a contest out there and both teams play it hard and hopefully they don’t cross the line.

“Both teams have played in a pretty good spirit this series and again, it’s a competitive sport.”

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