ICC promise 'sledging' crackdown at World Cup 2015

London International Cricket Council chief executive David Richardson said Tuesday the global governing body would come down hard on players who sledged or verbally abused their opponents at the upcoming World CupDavid RichardsonDuring the course of an extensive interview on the ICC website former South Africa wicketkeeper Richardson also said officials were determined to continue their campaign against illegal bowling actions and added he was confident the World Cup would not be blighted by match or spotfixingSeveral highprofile incidents in recent months have led former Australia captain Ian Chappell to say he fears it can only be a matter of time before things get so heated that a physical clash ensues Meanwhile New Zealand great Martin Crowe has called for the introduction of a yellow and red card system common to many other sports in a bid to punish poor onfield behaviour in cricket which has traditionally prided itself on being a gentlemens gameIndias ongoing tour of Australia has been marred by numerous verbal spats with Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland taking the unusual step of publicly telling David Warner to stop looking for trouble after the openers latest flareup saw him demand Indias Rohit Sharma speak English during a oneday international in Melbourne on SundayRichardson said he was confident the existing system whereby match referees oversee disciplinary punishments at major international fixtures could cope with disrespectful behaviour However he insisted the ICC had been stressing to onfield umpires the need to stop such conduct at its source with the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand now less than a month away Players going too far Over the last six months or even going back further to the last Ashes series there have been too many examples of player behaviour going too far and overstepping the boundaries of acceptability Richardson told icccricketcomThe amount of sledging and disrespect shown by players to each other was bad Since then we have done a lot of work with our umpires and match referees to ensure they are much more proactive in terms of policing behaviour on the field and when players do overstep the mark taking appropriate action He added Over the last three or four months you have seen 12 ICC code of conduct charges laid against people for exactly that disrespectful behaviour on the fieldFor the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 it will be no different and at all preevent briefings with the teams the match referees will be making sure that message is delivered loud and clear The past year has also seen a significant increase in the number of bowlers banned for suspect actions with Pakistan offspinner Saeed Ajmal the most highprofile caseThe game realised we had a significant problem and there were just too many bowlers from all teams bowling with suspected actions said Richardson I think we have made very good progress in identifying those bowlers sending them off to be tested and where necessary suspending them until they can remedy their actions he addedAs for the scourge of fixing a bullish Richardson said On the corruption side its safe to say were the best prepared weve ever been It will be very difficult for anybody outside of the game to come and even attempt to try and corrupt players umpires or anybody involved in the World Cup to try and fix a match