Habib faces abuse in New Zealand

Aftab Habib, the Leicestershire batsman who played two Tests for England, and is currently playing club cricket in New Zealand, has said he has never faced such abuse as he has experienced recently. It became so bad that he left the field - retiring his innings - in order to bring the issue to the notice of officials.

The New Zealand Hearld reports that Habib feels New Zealand, and especially the Taranaki Cricket Association (TCA) who employs him, needs more umpires at club level to take a stand against poor conduct.

"It's been disappointing more than anything else," Habib told the newspaper. "Cricket is supposed to be played in the right manner and language is a big concern in cricket in general.

"The higher level you play, and we saw this with New Zealand against South Africa, you're going to get done for it. There needs to be a standard set in club cricket as well. The umpires need to have a big say and it has to be dealt with."

The incident that led to Habib retiring began when a caught behind appeal was rejected while he was playing against Hawera. Three players then surrounded Habib for three minutes and, when there was no strong intervention from the umpires, he left the crease.

"It was completely out of order," said Habib, "If I'd stayed batting, I felt it would have carried on because the umpires weren't dealing with it how I felt they should."

To rub salt in Habib's wounds he later faced accusations of bringing the game into disrepute for his actions by the TCA. Habib pointed out he was well within his rights to retire at any stage of his innings.

The three main offenders from Hawera received a three week suspension but some of the clubs are reportedly embarrassed by the lack of tougher action. Graeme Reardon, chairman of TCA, tried to play down the incident and said it said could be put down to "the class of player they [Hawera] thought they had got out". He added "It was an isolated incident", but that it had been sufficiently dealt with, and if the confrontation had involved a player and an umpire that punishment could have been heavier.