Samuels blasts Warne for disgusting behaviour unbecoming for a legend of the game
Marlon Samuels has accused Shane Warne of desperate behaviour unbecoming for a legend of the game after escaping with a reprimand for his part in an ugly confrontation with Warne during the Big Bash League match between the Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades
Samuels who said his recent spat with Warne would probably have degenerated into fisticuffs had it occurred a few years earlier, also called for BBL organisers to adopt a more disciplined attitude towards player behaviour to ensure the right example was set to the family audience that the tournament was so anxious to attract.
”This tournament is a very good tournament, but whoever’s running the tournament has to take some positive steps by showing more discipline,” he said. ”The behaviour is poor. Every game you have people in other people’s face. Remember, T20 is for family and kids; you’re trying to pull a big crowd. It’s not a boxing game.
”At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how much a [rival] player makes, you still have to shake your opponent’s hand.
In his first interview since suffering two eye-socket fractures in the heated Melbourne derby on January 6 at the MCG, Samuels said he was disgusted at Warne’s behaviour and also the apparent apathy of the Melbourne Stars players after he was struck in the eye after top-edging a Lasith Malinga bouncer.
According to Samuels, Warne had gone too far in trying to unsettle him. ”He has kids, and if you have kids you have to respect other people’s kids. You can talk in a game and try to get into someone’s head, but you don’t get physical. That’s what he did. He took it to the next level, which was just way overboard,” Samuels said. ”He was a very desperate man doing desperate things. That’s not the way you go about it when you’re the face of the tournament with kids looking on.”
The right-handed batsman said he was staggered that after he was struck in the eye while batting, the only Stars player who sought to check on his welfare was the bowler, Malinga.
”No matter how much you want another player to be out, no matter how many things you’re going to tell that player, you do not want to see a fellow player get hurt,” he said. ”The rest of the players, what were you doing? It’s not a war, it’s a game. We’re here to entertain people … but we’re here to show love to one another as cricketers as well.”
Samuels in the meantime praised the support he had received from the renegades and vowed that he would only represent them in the BBL.
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