Cozier on Beauty and the Beast

Tony Cozier, the West Indian commentator, writes a column in Barbados' paper the Nation. This week he has written a quite venomous piece about chucking in the game of cricket - comparing the "radiance" of Brian Lara in the current Sabina Park test match to "the dark side of test cricket" shown by Shabbir Ahmed. I am still undecided on the whole chucking controversy. I can still see the need to loosen the rules if, as we are told, everyone was breaking them - but outright chucking should not be allowed and harsher penalties do need to be in place. According to Cozier Ahmed is about to be referred to the ICC because of his action for the third time. And what happens after he gets referred? He undergoes an independent analysis of his action and is asked to make corrective changes and is then allowed back into the game. In my view a player should be suspended once a referral is made and should remain suspended from international cricket until his action is cleared via a rigorous testing process that should, ideally, involve assessment domestic matches.