Afridi's Punishment

The powers-that-be deserve to be congratulated for their timely punishment of Shahid Afridi. Their decision to ban him for the next three games follows his indefensible action yesterday, where he not once but twice roughed up the pitch on a length, when the officials' backs were turned (although not those of his team-mates). Both his apologists and those calling for ridiculously excessive punishments have been stopped in their tracks.

Unfortunately controversy appears to haunt the contests between these two sides, but usually incidents have been exacerbated by weak and ineffective officials who fail to grasp the nettle and take appropriate action.

I doubt the Gatting - Shakoor Rana affair, the ball tampering allegations in the early 90s or Aquib Javed's bouncers to Devon Malcolm would have achieved half the notoriety if those who run the game had shown the courage and foresight of today's officials. Thanks to them Afridi has pleaded guilty and been punished, now we can move on.