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No swearing please, Nasser urges
Staff and Agencies - 26 October 2000

Railing against umpires, opponents or unruly crowds has been prohibited in the England camp, unless it is done privately within the confines of the dressing room.

England captain Nasser Hussain has urged his team to curtail public shows of emotion for fear of re-igniting any ill-feeling left over from the tour of Pakistan in 1987.

Already, Alec Stewart has had to be spoken to by match referee Barry Jarman for his angry reaction to an umpiring decision on Tuesday. The crowd grew restless when Stewart threw his bat to the ground in frustration after being given out caught behind.

And Hussain is anxious not to see a repeat of Stewart's behaviour.

"I didn't see him lob his bat away and I've not seen replays of it because I was at the top of the steps making my way out to the middle - I thought it was such a quick delivery it blew his bat out of his hand," joked Hussain.

"In any part of the world you shouldn't brood about decisions, but also you want to see a batsman hurt if he has had a bad decision because it has hurt him and hurt the team, not especially out in the middle but when he is sat back in the dressing room.

"Various people react differently and that is something we have tried to introduce into this team that we are not all going to be one way and we are not all going to be the other.

"Some people come into the dressing room and say nothing and other people will be stewing for half an hour, but you can only do that in the privacy of your own dressing room."

"Alec got a bad one, but we've all had bad ones and we're going to have to work hard to live through it now and through our careers and not just this tour,'' he said.

"Barry's had a quiet word with Alec, these things happen around the world. It's big news because it's Pakistan and in general, apart from that one decision, the umpires were very good the other night.

"They handled the pressure as well as anybody, were very amiable and friendly to both sets of players and we didn't have any problems with them.''

England are expected to name an unchanged line-up for the second day-night international tomorrow providing Hussain passes a fitness test on the ankle he turned in the match on Tuesday.

The remaining games at Lahore and Rawalpindi have both been brought forward by two and and a half hours after problems with heavy dew that disrupted play in the first one day international which was won by England.

"I came down to have a look at the ground last night and dew was twice as bad here as it was in Karachi," explained Jarman.

"When you got down close to the grass, it just looked like a sheet of water and you could see it actually coming down out of the sky with the lights on.

"I wouldn't ask anyone to play under conditions like that so we organised the TV guys and both teams, got together to have a chat and agreed to start at noon.

"I think it will make it fairer because the way things stood, if you won the toss you won the game - the ball was like a bar of soap the other night when the Pakistanis were bowling and I think this is the fair thing to do.

"By moving the game forward, the only time we should be affected by the dew should be in the last hour, which could make the ball a little slippy."

© CricInfo Ltd


Teams England, Pakistan.
Players/Umpires Nasser Hussain, Alec Stewart.
Tours England in Pakistan