'World has gone mad, cricket has shot itself in the foot' - Michael Vaughan on Kagiso Rabada's ban

2019 was a rather up and down year for Kagiso Rabada. There were stages where he didn’t look like himself. However, he seems to be returning to his best and has been the leading wicket-taker in the Test series against England. He picked up seven wickets in South Africa’s win in the Boxing Day Test and was their best bowler even in their loss in the second Test.

However, he is in the news once again for the wrong reasons. On the first day of the third Test in Port Elizabeth, the premier South African pacer was his side’s best bowler once again. He was the first one to get the breakthrough for the Proteas and even picked up the prized scalp of England skipper Joe Root. He produced a beauty to go through Root’s defence and knock his stumps over.

Kagiso Rabada let out a huge roar right in front of the batsmen and they were pretty close to each other when the former was celebrating. He was warned for celebrating Zak Crawley’s wicket in the last game as well. Thus, the on-field umpires and the match referee have deemed the celebration of Root’s wicket as inappropriate.

As a result, the 24-year-old has been fined 15% of his match fee and has also copped a demerit point. With that, he takes his tally to four within 24 months which converts to a ban of one Test match. The Johannesburg-born fast bowler will miss the fourth Test which is scheduled to be played at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.

Michael Vaughan lashes out at ICC

This ban hasn’t gone down well with most of the former cricketers. Nasser Hussain was very critical about it and Michael Vaughan has joined the list. The former England captain expressed his disappointment in his column in The Telegraph. He termed the one-match ban as ‘ridiculous’ and questioned if a bowler can’t celebrate the opposition skipper’s wicket.

“His one-match ban is ridiculous. The world has gone mad if a bowler cannot celebrate dismissing the opposition captain with a snorter,” Vaughan stated in his article. He further went on to say that cricket finds a way to shoot itself in the foot. He compared ICC’s inability to do anything about the poor overrates but targeting bowlers like Kagiso Rabada who celebrate a wicket.