PORT ELIZABETH, Dec 16: South Africa’s cricketers are earning “a bad name with the world cricketing authorities for the foul language” they use during matches.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) sent a message of “disgust” with the way the South African and Pakistani players told each other off during the third one-day cricket match at Buffalo Park on Friday.

The ICC complaint was specifically about the language used within earshot of the stump microphones that could be heard by television viewers. Although the ICC lambasted both teams equally, it was learned they were specifically worried about the language of South Africans.

South African players were already involved in numerous verbal skirmishes on the field this season in their Tests against Sri Lanka as well as during the matches against Australia ‘A’.

Harsh words were again exchanged on Friday and apparently the Mark Boucher and Shahid Afridi became involved in a war of words of note.

The match referee of the one-day series between South Africa and Pakistan, Clive Lloyd warned both camps after Friday to approach the game with greater calm.

“It was just a friendly conversation dealing mainly with what could be heard over the stump microphones. We don’t want things to go too far,” Lloyd said.

“Lloyd just wanted to ensure that the umpires stayed in control of things. There was no big problem. Nobody is in trouble.

“It was a competitive match and we were wanting to do well. Sometimes that can lead to problems, but it did not happen on Friday,” South African captain Shaun Pollock said about the session with Lloyd.

Lloyd said the television directors could be asked to change the way they used the stump microphones during transmissions.

“It should be used when a ball is being bowled. Viewers would then hear how the bowler delivers the ball and how it hits the bat. Those microphones could then be switched off until the next delivery,” Lloyd said.

Things may get a bit calmer when the two teams take each other on in Paarl in the fourth and penultimate match of the series.

However, it looks as if the Australians are at risk to lose their title as the kings of sledging with South Africa’s reputation on the up.

Most experts, like former South African captain Kepler Wessels hold the opinion that sledging is part of the game.—PPI