Cricket: Bad hair day hangs over Mills

By RICHARD BOOCK

Whatever else is present, there will be no lack of irony in today's disciplinary hearing involving New Zealand paceman Kyle Mills.

The big-haired seamer is to be summoned before match referee Chris Broad as a result of his actions in the fourth one-dayer on Wednesday, when he began celebrating the dismissal of Pakistan batsman Saleem Elahi without appealing to umpire Darrell Hair.

The International Cricket Council has initiated a crackdown on the practice, apparently on the grounds that an assumption of success places the umpires under unfair pressure.

The offence is listed under "excessive appealing" in the players' code of conduct and carries a penalty of anything from a reprimand to a fine of 50 per cent of Mills' match-fee. There appears to be no provision for suspension.

For all that, Mills could claim that he was perfectly entitled to start celebrating in Napier as Elahi was obviously out so that an appeal could have seemed unnecessary.


It seems extraordinary that Mills could be carpeted for not appealing in a situation where the batsman was so palpably defeated.

He could also be forgiven for asking why, if there was no need to appeal when a batsman was caught at slip or gully, he was obliged to ask the question when a thick edge flew through to the wicketkeeper.

And then there's the issue of why a bowler should be penalised for not appealing for an upheld dismissal, when batsmen such as Elahi can routinely stand their ground in the hope of the umpire making an error.

The other curiosity is that Mills' behaviour will be judged by Broad, one of the more notorious figures in international cricket through the late 1980s, and a batsman whose career was allegedly ended by the England selectors after on-going disciplinary problems.

As a player, Broad was severely reprimanded for refusing to walk after being given out against Pakistan in 1987, he was fined $2700 for wrecking his stumps during the bicentennial test against Australia in 1988, and was discarded after mouthing off at the umpires at Lord's later the same year.

The official line was that he had been dropped on form after scoring just 0 and 1, but the left-hander's overall test record - 25 matches, 1161 runs at 39.54, including six centuries - suggests his batting was not the problem.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand side held an optional training after arriving in Wellington yesterday and gave little indication of what, if any, changes they might make to their line-up for tomorrow's fifth and final ODI at the Cake Tin.

The expectation is that Andre Adams will be included in the XI, but the question of who he might replace remains a shade unclear.

Assuming Mills doesn't fall foul of some code of conduct fine-print and remains available, the temptation might even be to rest star New Zealand seamer Daryl Tuffey, who has played in every New Zealand game since last May's tour of Sri Lanka.