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Kagiso Rabada is a victim of his own stupidity

(Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Expert
16th March, 2018
214

South Africa are doing their best to position banned bowler Kagiso Rabada as a victim and they’re correct – Rabada is a victim of his own stupidity.

You can argue the ICC code of conduct rules are unfair, that they’re too tough, but you can’t argue that Rabada was unaware of those rules.

A lot of people are doing the former in an effort to absolve Rabada, or at the very least to position him as a patsy of a flawed system.

But that doesn’t change the fact Rabada twice at Port Elizabeth did things he clearly shouldn’t have done, according to ICC rules which he was well aware of.

There are three factors which make Rabada’s behaviour in that match particularly foolish. The first is the fact he had three prior offences on his record and knew this accumulation of points meant another offence would put him at great risk of a ban.

The second is that Rabada is acutely aware of how serious the ICC are about send-offs, having recently being banned from a Test in England for telling dismissed batsman Ben Stokes to “f— off”.

The third is that after the monumental furore over the David Warner and Quinton de Kock stoush in the first Test, it was obvious the match officials and the ICC would be heavily scrutinising player behaviour in the second Test.

Match referee Jeff Crowe told both teams after the first Test he would not accept any more overly-aggressive player behaviour. The second Test, then, was quite clearly the worst possible occasion for any player to hand out send-offs.

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So what does Rabada do? He not only screams a send-off in the face of the opposition captain, but he deviates towards Steve Smith during this send-off, so much so that he causes physical contact, something forbidden under ICC rules.

Rabada must have known in that moment, or in the minutes afterwards, that he was in deep trouble given his past record and the heavy scrutiny on this Test.

When he was then charged with a level-two breach, putting him at risk of missing the rest of the series, you would think that would have concerned Rabada so much that we wouldn’t have heard a peep from him the rest of the Test.

David Warner was like a ghost on the field in the second Test, pulling his head in so as to avoid further penalties or drama after his boorish behaviour in the first Test.

But Rabada, in the ultimate act of idiocy and self-sabotage, decided to push his luck even further in the second innings.

He dominated Warner during their short battle in this innings, repeatedly forcing errors from the Australian before clean bowling him – the most emphatic way in which a bowler can dismiss a batsman.

South Africa's Kagiso Rabada appeals

(AP Photo/Rob Griffith)

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Rabada was the victor, the conqueror. But instead of basking in this comprehensive triumph, he picked up a metaphorical shotgun and blasted off his own foot by giving Warner an animated send-off.

As it happened in real time I could not believe what I had just seen – Rabada had all but guaranteed he would play no further part in a blockbuster home series which he was currently controlling.

He had ensured that, while the cricketing community should have been feting his extraordinary 11-wicket performance, they were instead discussing his likely two-match ban.

Rabada committed not one but two acts of lunacy at Port Elizabeth. For that, he deserves no sympathy.

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