Lillee will retire immediately if suspended

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 56

Lillee will retire immediately if suspended

NZPA Perth Dennis Lillee will quit cricket if he is suspended over the kicking incident with the Pakistan test captain, Javed Miandad. Lillee made this clear yesterday as the cricket world called for a tougher penalty for the Australian fast bowler after one of the most controversial incidents ever in a test match.

“If I am suspended that will be the end of my cricket career — I’ll retire immediately,” Lillee said.

“Miandad started the whole incident and if the authorities want to take the matter further then I will quit because I'm not at fault. “My teammates have seen fit to impose a $2OO fine on me and they were in the best

position to judge the circumstances — certainly in a better position than those who are passing judgment on me.

"They obviously took into account the fact that I acted under severe provocation and they thought $2OO was a fair punishment.” Lillee was regretful — but not repentant — as he had breakfast at home yesterday before leaving for the. final day of the test at the W.A.C.A. ground. As he sipped his coffee he replayed the incident several times on his television video recorder.

“In retrospect I had ignored the first part of the incident when Miandad ran into me. At no stagee did I deliberately bump into him

— I was merely turning as I always do when I am about to return to my bowling mark after a delivery. “’Miandad forcefully pushed his bat into my ribs as I half turned to walk back. “As for me kicking him — it was more an attempt to stir him up to see what further reaction I would get from him rather than a deliberate attempt to hurt him. “It was a very gentle nudge — certainly it wasn’t intended to be a damaging kick and my foot didn’t come in contact with him with any force. “If I had wanted to hurt Miandad I could have done something a lot more damaging than that, but the thought

of hurting him hadn’t even entered my mind. I suppose I was just trying to judge his reaction.” Lillee said he believed Miandad should also face disciplinary action over the incident. “From the moment I first walked on to the ground in this test the Pakistanis have been at me,” Lillee said. “They appear intent on provoking me with words and gestures.”

Lillee said that he wasn’t able to give an opinion on Greg Chappell’s theory that the incident was a plot by the Pakistanis to have Lillee rubbed out of test cricket for the remainder of the series. “I wouldn’t know about that. All I know is that they have been very provocative

towards me for the entire fest,” he said. Lillee has been blasted from all quarters over the incident.

A firmer test cricketer, Keith Miller, in a Sydney “Daily Telegraph” article beaded “Kick Lillee out” said: “Lillee has violated all areas of the code of the game and he should be suspended for the rest of the season.

“I really don’t give a dam if it’s his benefit year or not,” continued Miller.

One of Australia’s greatest test stars, the spinner, Bill O’Reilly, said in the “Sydney Morning Herald”: “Chappell should have told Lillee to get the hell off the field and stay there.”

O’Reilly says the Austra-

lian Cricket Board must face it’s responsibilities otherwise they will become the laughing stock of the world and the butt of bar room jokes for years to come.

. “If the board hasn’t the guts to handle this show adequately, then the immediate resignations of its members will be the only acceptable reaction,” said O’Reilly.

The . former Australian spinner praised “the wonderfully cool manner of the umpire, Tony Crafter, as he was pushed aside” during the incident..

O’Reilly added: “If the board is prepared to do it’s job, Lillee is due for a long holiday.” In a front page editorial, the Brisbane “Courier Mail” said that Lillee should have

been banned from playing cricket for the rest of the summer.

The “Courier Mail” said: “If he had been a football or hockey player, he would have been sent from the field instantly yesterday and faced a heavy suspension when he came before the game’s judiciary.”

The editorial said that the Australian Cricket Board was “too spineless” to hand down arbitrary punishments, preferring to leave the disciplining of players to the offenders’, team mates. The “Courier Mail” editorial added: “When Len Pascoe ‘bean-balled’ Kim Hughes a fortnight ago, he was suspended for one match. Lillee’s kick should be worth a lot more.”

“His brilliant career, and the fact that this is his benefit year, should not matter in any action taken against him.”

A former test all-rounder, Tom Vievers, now a Queensland selector, believes the A.C.B. should suspend Lillee. He said: “The $2OO fine is a joke and it’s up to the board to do something about it.” An English cricket journalist, Henry Blofeld, writing in the “Australian,” said: “How can a professional cricketer of Dennis Lillee’s standing in the 'game aim a badtempered kick at another professional cricketer in the middle of a test match?

“I cannot see one single redeeming feature in Lillee’s defence,” Blofeld wrote.