Cricket: Black Caps slammed for charging for autographs

1.00pm

The New Zealand cricket team has been attacked for charging for autographs during their tour of England in June and July.

The practice has drawn criticism from authoritative cricket website Wisden Cricinfo.

Wisden Cricinfo said it contradicted the Marylebone Cricket Club's suggestions for showing "respect for the game's traditional values".

"This presumably includes being fair to one's fans, and not charging autograph-hunters money for the privilege of an illegible scribble, as was the case on their tour of England earlier this summer," the website said.

New Zealand Cricket public affairs manager Steve Addison said the Black Caps had charged for some autographs while touring England but it was in response being besieged by professional autograph hunters with merchandise they were on-selling.

"There were 20 or 30 of them at a time with caps and cards which were not for personal use so the players got a bit annoyed," he said.

Addison did not know how much the Black Caps had charged for their autographs.

Wisden Cricinfo also criticised the International Cricket Council's (ICC) spirit of cricket award made to New Zealand.

It said the decision to honour New Zealand last week was worse than the controversial omission of Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan from the world test 11.

It singled out captain Stephen Fleming for his sledging of his South African opposite early this year as being contrary to the award.

"Fleming may be a fine and upstanding captain, but his one outstanding contribution to the cause of fair play came earlier this year against South Africa, when he destroyed Graeme Smith's hard-man image with the sort of ruthlessly premeditated sledging that Ian Chappell could not have bettered," the website said.

It pointed out that clause one of the MCC's preamble on the spirit of cricket states: "The captains are responsible at all times for ensuring that play is conducted within the spirit of the game."

Fleming himself was remarkably upfront about those tactics at the time.

"We saw an emotion that we could tap into," he said after the test series.

The website said the presentation of the award to the Black Caps was a "classic pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey moment and in a misguided instant, the ICC pricked the poor ass right between the eyes".

Meanwhile, the Black Caps play Australia on Thursday in London in a match to decide who of the two progress past pool play at the ICC Champions Trophy tournament.

- NZPA