Irate Richards rounds on `cheating` Australians - Mike Selvey

VIV RICHARDS, the former  West   Indies   captain,   has   called
Australia`s  emphatic  10-wicket win in the first Test in Bridge-
town last weekend a "hollow victory" because of the controversial
first-innings  dismissal  of  Brian  Lara and said that some Aus-
tralians had been cheating "for years".

Lara, on 65 and very much in charge, went  to  a   diving   Steve
Waugh  catch  in  the gully although television replays seemed to
show that the ball hit the ground as Waugh rolled  over.  Neither
umpire  gave the batsman out, Lara going, presumably, on the say-
so of the fielder. The  West  Indian  innings subsequently   col-
lapsed, the last six wickets falling for 65 runs.

"Waugh`s catch made it a hollow  victory,"  Richards  said   yes-
terday  at  home in Antigua for the second Test, which begins to-
morrow. "Lara was batting like a dream and  who  knows  how  many
runs  he might have scored. Easily 200. It was the crucial moment
of the match. That`s why it`s a win Australia cannot be proud of.

"TV replays clearly showed to me that the  ball  bounced  and the
player  must have known that. You do, instinctively, when you are
out there. But some Australians - not all, but  some  - have been
doing it for years since I started playing in 1975.

"It is very poor when teams here start to resort to  that.  I was
very  disappointed  and  very  angry when I saw it. I would never
have done it."

A disappointed and angry Richards,  particularly  on   his   home
territory,  is  a  fearsome thing, as can be confirmed by the En-
glish journalist who was assailed verbally in the press box  five
years  ago  when  Richards should have been leading his men on to
the field.

On the other hand it could be said that Richards`s own record  is
not entirely clean. In that same England tour he looked to be in-
strumental in apparently causing the  umpire   Lloyd  Barker   to
change his mind over a caught-behind decision and give Rob Bailey
out. It looked like sharp practice and the replays indeed  showed
the ball deflecting to the wicketkeeper from the batsman`s rump.

Now Richards is gunning for Waugh. "It makes  me  think   I   was
glad  to  quit when I did," he said. "If I see Steve Waugh around
this place here in Antigua I`ll tell him what I think in no  unc-
ertain terms."

Source :: The Guardian
<END> Contributed by Ram.Krishnan (rkrishna@garnet.acns.fsu.edu)