Sydney, July 9 (TNS): Glenn Maxwell, the Australia allrounder, has admitted his apparent snub to Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed following Pakistan’s victory in the triangular series final in Harare appeared to be an “unsportsmanlike” gesture, though he maintained it was a “genuine oversight”.
Television cameras captured the moments after Pakistan secured their six-wicket victory, which showed Maxwell congratulating Shoaib Malik then also shaking hands with Jhye Richardson and the umpires but seemingly ignoring the outstretched hand of Sarfraz on his right. After numerous media reports froze the moment in time and questioned Maxwell’s intentions, the Victorian delivered his version of events on Twitter.
“Congrats to Pakistan on their win yesterday, Fakhar Zaman and Shoaib Malik were unstoppable! Sad note to end our tour of Zimbabwe, but still plenty of positives to take out of it,” he wrote. “In regards to the incident shown post match, it appears unsportsmanlike, and certainly not the way I play the game.
“It was a genuine oversight on my behalf and I’m currently looking for Sarfraz in the hotel to shake his hand and congratulate him and his team for their series win #wellplayed.”
It is believed that Maxwell and Sarfraz were involved in numerous verbal exchanges during the course of Pakistan’s victory, namely when the captain was batting during a successful chase. More contentiously, there is also the suggestion that the pair exchanged words after the game had been completed and Sarfraz ran onto the field, in advance of his team-mates, to celebrate with the unbeaten batsmen.
Since the Newlands ball-tampering scandal in March, the image and conduct of the Australian team has been a source of enormous debate both within Australia and around the world. Cricket Australia has commissioned two separate reviews, both of the men’s team and the culture of CA more generally, to investigate.
In the aftermath of Cape Town and the bans imposed on Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, the new captain Tim Paine instigated a custom – borrowed from football – of ensuring players on both sides shook hands before as well as after a match.
This was done both at the start of the final South Africa Test in Johannesburg and then the beginning of the five-match ODI series in England. However, it did not feature when Australia, led this time by Aaron Finch, began the Twenty20 triangular series in Zimbabwe with a match against Pakistan.
The coach Justin Langer has spoken of the clear difference between “banter” and “abuse”, with Paine’s line to the England opener Jason Roy during the Old Trafford ODI – “you think you’ve won the World Cup already, don’t ya?” – touted as an example. At the recent ICC annual conference in Dublin, the game’s governing body introduced new code of conduct offences for swearing, personal abuse and cheating.
