Ball tampering incident big wake up call for everyone, feels Kallis
Kolkata April 1 (IANS) Legendary South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis on Sunday termed the ball tampering scandal by Australian players as a "big wake up call" for cricketers around the world adding that everybody should now know where to draw the line.
Australian captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were slapped with a one-year international ban while opener Cameron Bancroft was suspended for nine months as Cricket Australia (CA) cracked the whip on the errant trio for their role in the ball-tampering scandal during the third Test in Cape Town.
"I think there has been a lot of media and a lot of talk over what has happened in the last few days. It s probably taken up too much of everybody s time.
"I can t add to that too much but I think it s just been a wake up call for everyone in international cricket. We need to look after this game and make sure we play in the right spirit and the right way " Kallis told reporters on the sidelines of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) jersey launch at the team hotel here.
Kallis is the head coach of the two-time champions and was present on the occasion along with skipper Dinesh Karthik his deputy Robin Uthappa chinaman Kuldeep Yadav Piyush Chawla West Indian all-rounder Andre Russell U-19 World Cup winners Shivam Mavi Shubman Gill and Kamlesh Nagarkoti among others.
"It s just made players all around the world aware that you have to be careful of what you do. So like I said it s going to be a big wake up call " Kallis added.
The 42-year-old who has represented the Proteas in 166 Tests and 328 One-Day Internationals (ODI) scoring over 13 000 runs in red-ball cricket and taking 292 wickets added that at KKR the stress is always on playing hard but in a fair manner.
"What I will be pressing upon my players is that we play the game hard but we play fair. It s pretty much how I would like to see KKR play and that s how we have been playing in the past " he said.
KKR take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on April 8 at the Eden Gardens to begin their IPL campaign.
--IANS
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