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DURBAN: South Africa captain Graeme Smith was tight-lipped on Wednesday about his confrontation with Indian bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth during the second Test at Kingsmead.
“I'm not going to get into that. It's between me and Sreesanth,” Smith said when asked what had happened on the field after he appeared to wave his bat at the bowler following an exchange of words while Smith was batting on Tuesday.
Smith insisted the incident did not lead to his dismissal soon afterwards.
“I've played enough Test cricket to know what I can handle and what I can't handle. It was more a technical thing.”
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was more forthcoming about a bowler who has been labelled as a problem child of the game.
“There are guidelines that need to be followed. You need to be yourself but at the same time you shouldn't get into others' space, you shouldn't cross the limit,” he said.
Dhoni did not say whether he thought Sreesanth had crossed that limit, but he did reveal that he had spoken to the bowler about the time he had taken to bowl his overs during the first Test in Centurion, where India had fallen behind the required bowling rate.
“One thing I told him is that if it takes six, seven minutes to bowl an over, it can be very difficult,” said Dhoni.
“In the last Test we were five or six overs down and we had to use the part-timers a lot. He did well in this game. The over rate was good. He bowled well.”
Dhoni added wryly: “You always need to have him under control. It's good for everyone; for him, for us, for our side, the opposition and the umpires and the spectators.”
