This was an interview I did with Ashar Zaidi a couple of years ago for The Daily Telegraph. Interesting to see that Craig Overton is part of the Ashes squad, but still has not apologised to Ashar to this day.
Ashar Zaidi has called for the England and Wales Cricket Board to crack down on future cases involving sledging with racial overtones.
Somerset’s Craig Overton was heard telling Sussex’s Zaidi to “go back to your own f------ country” in a county match at the end of last season and was punished for using foul and abusive language.
Zaidi did not hear the abuse at the time and Overton denied it but the non-striker, Mike Yardy, and the umpire Alex Wharf included it in evidence to a subsequent disciplinary panel.
Overton was given a level-one punishment and banned for two games because it was his third offence of the season. But he was treated more leniently than Andrew Gale, the Yorkshire captain, who in 2014 received a four-match ban and was not allowed to lift the championship title for a similar offence.
“I’m not in a position to say whether he was treated leniently but I was very surprised at his penalty and I’m sure he could have had a harsher punishment than one or two games,” Zaidi told Telegraph Sport. “It’s clear that Jason Gillespie [Yorkshire’s head coach] is also not happy with the punishment Overton received either compared to Andrew Gale.
“What needs to be done in future and what should have been done in this incident is to make sure some serious action was taken. This sort of incident in sport does a lot of harm. There is absolutely no room for it in society, in entertainment, in the media and in sport. For the sake of the game of cricket and for the spirit of the game he should apologise to me. Look at Andrew Gale. He apologised, but Overton hasn’t and he’s being selected by the ECB for overseas tours.”
Alastair Cook urged Overton last week to learn from the incident, which if it had happened at international level, where there is more scrutiny and the presence of stump microphones, it could have escalated into something much more serious. Overton was included in an England squad last summer and was part of the England Performance Programme fast bowling camps in Dubai and South Africa in November.
“I cringe to imagine what he will say to Pakistani players at any level if he plays against them in future. If I saw him again I would probably let him know what I feel about him,” Zaidi said. “If I had heard about the incident and what happened whilst I was at the ground, seriously I don’t know how I would have reacted as that was unacceptable coming from a fellow professional cricketer.
“When I eventually heard about what had happened I was fuming and absolutely livid. You cannot just do things like that. At the next day’s play he didn’t look me in the eye and he didn’t warm up with the rest of his team and literally just sat in the opposition dressing room all day. Somerset officials including their director of cricket came and spoke with me and also to Overton but still there was no apology from him. Maybe he was too ashamed to come up to me face to face and apologise.
“I have no problem with sledging, it happens, we all do it, but what he said was too much. It was surprising also as he played alongside Abdur Rehman at Somerset last season. I don’t know what sort of hatred he had inside him to say what he did.”
Ashar Zaidi has called for the England and Wales Cricket Board to crack down on future cases involving sledging with racial overtones.
Somerset’s Craig Overton was heard telling Sussex’s Zaidi to “go back to your own f------ country” in a county match at the end of last season and was punished for using foul and abusive language.
Zaidi did not hear the abuse at the time and Overton denied it but the non-striker, Mike Yardy, and the umpire Alex Wharf included it in evidence to a subsequent disciplinary panel.
Overton was given a level-one punishment and banned for two games because it was his third offence of the season. But he was treated more leniently than Andrew Gale, the Yorkshire captain, who in 2014 received a four-match ban and was not allowed to lift the championship title for a similar offence.
“I’m not in a position to say whether he was treated leniently but I was very surprised at his penalty and I’m sure he could have had a harsher punishment than one or two games,” Zaidi told Telegraph Sport. “It’s clear that Jason Gillespie [Yorkshire’s head coach] is also not happy with the punishment Overton received either compared to Andrew Gale.
“What needs to be done in future and what should have been done in this incident is to make sure some serious action was taken. This sort of incident in sport does a lot of harm. There is absolutely no room for it in society, in entertainment, in the media and in sport. For the sake of the game of cricket and for the spirit of the game he should apologise to me. Look at Andrew Gale. He apologised, but Overton hasn’t and he’s being selected by the ECB for overseas tours.”
Alastair Cook urged Overton last week to learn from the incident, which if it had happened at international level, where there is more scrutiny and the presence of stump microphones, it could have escalated into something much more serious. Overton was included in an England squad last summer and was part of the England Performance Programme fast bowling camps in Dubai and South Africa in November.
“I cringe to imagine what he will say to Pakistani players at any level if he plays against them in future. If I saw him again I would probably let him know what I feel about him,” Zaidi said. “If I had heard about the incident and what happened whilst I was at the ground, seriously I don’t know how I would have reacted as that was unacceptable coming from a fellow professional cricketer.
“When I eventually heard about what had happened I was fuming and absolutely livid. You cannot just do things like that. At the next day’s play he didn’t look me in the eye and he didn’t warm up with the rest of his team and literally just sat in the opposition dressing room all day. Somerset officials including their director of cricket came and spoke with me and also to Overton but still there was no apology from him. Maybe he was too ashamed to come up to me face to face and apologise.
“I have no problem with sledging, it happens, we all do it, but what he said was too much. It was surprising also as he played alongside Abdur Rehman at Somerset last season. I don’t know what sort of hatred he had inside him to say what he did.”
