CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

England cricket officials attempted to cover up an embarrassing breach of discipline by Adam Hollioake and even kept it secret from Lord MacLaurin, who has made it his declared mission to raise the standards of behaviour among England cricketers.

Hollioake, playing for England against Essex in a World Cup warm-up game last Sunday, delivered three V-signs towards a section of the crowd packed with families after receiving mild booing, triggering off a number of complaints by spectators and leading to police involvement.

Yet, even though the police inspector in charge at Chelmsford asked the team management to take action, England are adamant Hollioake will not be fined. They appear to consider it a lesser offence than Graham Thorpe's refusal to attend a team cocktail party in Canterbury in the build-up to the tournament, for which he received a £1,000 fine.

Only when The Sunday Telegraph began making inquiries about the incident did the England management decide to go public by releasing a statement on Friday night which stated that Hollioake had been let off with a warning. Remarkably, Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, was not informed by his officials until The Sunday Telegraph began its invest- igation.

Lord MacLaurin, who today stresses the importance of discipline among England players in an interview in this newspaper, said: ``I heard about this on Friday. It's a shame. We don't need this. I think it will be dealt with in exactly the same way as David Graveney dealt with Thorpe.''

No it will not, England insisted yesterday. ``We spoke to Adam at length about this on Monday,'' said ECB spokesman Brian Murgatroyd, ``and we have sent a letter to the police officer involved. We did regard it as serious and reminded him that gestures can be misinterpreted, but Adam is not a malicious person. We told him to be careful.''

Many people will be left wondering, however, how three offensive gestures, delivered at a time when cricket is desperate to promote the game to a young audience, can be considered less serious than being too tired to join team-mates at a cocktail party after a lengthy practice session.

``The Thorpe incident was about doing things as a team,'' said Murgatroyd. ``There were 14 other players sitting on a bus waiting for him and if we had not made that public it might have come out at a damaging time. But this business with Hollioake was such a low-key thing that most of the players weren't aware it had taken place.''

The incident occurred towards the end of last Sunday's match which Essex came within two runs of winning. The home crowd became agitated with England captain Alec Stewart's slow field placings and booed Hollioake as he ran down to his position on the third-man boundary.

The all-rounder responded with a V-sign and the gesture was repeated on two occasions at the end of a subsequent over, which led spectators to complain to Essex officials and police. Stewart, who was keeping wicket at the time, was aware of Hollioake's actions and attempted to defuse the situation by playfully slapping his own wrist and pointing to his Surrey captain.

``I spoke to all the spectators who complained independently and they were all happy for the matter to be dealt with internally,'' said Inspector Chris Macintosh of Chelmsford police. ``I passed on the comments to David Graveney because I wanted to make sure that some action was taken.

``I told him that it was not what we expected. Inappropriate gestures are the last things we want during this World Cup because it might aggravate the large crowds. I understand that a letter is heading my way from Mr Graveney but I haven't seen it yet.''