by Jon Pierik and Robert Craddock
CRICKET’S ruling body is about to order a major crackdown on player behaviour, responding to years of criticism it has been too soft.

The International Cricket Council meeting in Kuala Lumpur approved a complete review of the penalty system for player behaviour which will be completed by next April.

It is almost certain that the ICC will soon approve the removal of suspended bans and fine limits and give match referees greater power.

The mood of the meeting was strongly in favour of tougher penalties.

Presently players can be fined up to 75 per cent of their match fees and banned for a maximum of three Tests and six one day internationals.

The fines, which often range between $4000 and $7000, are seen as an ineffectual measure against players who earn above $600,000 annually.

While the game is keen to clean up its image, the likely new penalties would amount to nothing more than a window dressing exercise unless match referees toughen up as well.

Removing suspended bans sounds good in theory because it will make match referees give players genuine suspensions.

But the referees have always had this option, but only rarely have they used it.

Many players believe the major worry of the code of conduct system is not the penalties but the inconsistency in which they are applied.

After the tour of India in April, when Australia both suffered and profited from hard-to-follow decisions from match referee Cammie Smith, Steve Waugh called for a football style penalty system to combat the confusion in the game.

"We’ve talked about it at a captain’s ICC meeting where, with indiscretions either on or off the field, you know exactly what the penalty is going to be," Waugh said after the Indian tour.
- (Daily Telegraph)