Exactly a year ago, Hershel Gibbs was arrested by Western Cape police on the drunken driving in Sea Point. The Volkswagen SUV that he was driving was intercepted by police in Main Road, Sea Point near the corner of York road for speeding at an odd hour of 1.45am. The star South African batsman had faced charges of driving with alcohol vapor on his breath in excess of the legal limit, as well as of reckless driving. Now one year latter, the thirty five year old international cricket star is relieved of the charges; it was reported that the state was directed by the Western Cape Directorate for Public Prosecutions to withdraw the charges. He was given 100 hours of community service. However the reason for this soft attitude toward the player has not been explained.

The National Prosecuting Authority later said that in its opinion community service is appropriate for the player, who had undergone a treatment program before. However, the program was attended several months ago. Despite NPA’s explanation, it still looks like a preferential treatment for a prominent star of international cricket and it sends across the wrong message that the rich and famous are immune from the law of the land. And this leads thousands in the country to believe that the prosecuting authorities owe a very, very detailed explanation about this inexplicable soft sentence for the bad boy of South African cricket.

Miles away in another part of the world, cricket’s greatest controversy maker in the recent times, Andrew Symonds got involved in a brawl in a Brisbane bar. As the cricket news media scooped out, the all rounder was evicted out of the bar when a stumbling Symonds, evidently from an alcohol overdose accidentally broke a glass and was having a rather noisy chat with his friends. But today, Queensland Cricket gave a clean chit to its valuable all rounder saying they found nothing wrong in the behavior of the player who was celebrating the end of the Sheffield Shield season, in a group with other players. Bulls skipper Chris Simpson, who was also partying with the international cricket star supported the player. “As far as I am concerned, we were responsible across the evening. We were enjoying ourselves as a group and when management politely approached us to ask us to finish up, we did so. Reports that Andrew broke a glass are wrong and personally I don't consider that he was loud and boisterous,” Simpson said.

 

(Read Cricket360 related article "Symonds Thy Name Is Controversy")

 

It seems, the authorities can be convinced too easily when it comes to the relieving of their star cricketers of serious charges. Being shown the door for being too drunk - clearly it was nothing as compared to the previous offences of Symonds and that gave the CA perfect excuse for washing hands off the issue. This is the time, the Boards and the respective countries that these bad boys of cricket belong to, realize that sending to rehab is not sufficient for the players who have made it a practice to get embroiled into one controversy after another. Drunken driving or any sort of out of the place behavior under the influence of alcohol is legal offence in any civilized nation. Law should make no difference between an ordinary citizen and a star cricketer in this respect. Being a star of international cricket can not be one’s license to do anything, isn’t it?

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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