Durhamfootman wrote:I don't know about this.... please tell
He has been banned for the start of the county season for "abusive language" towards Ashar Zaidi in the Sussex game last year. He apparently unprovoked decided that he should inform Zaidi, a British Citizen, that he should "f*ck off back to his own country", a statement that was overheard by Alex Wharf umpiring and by Michael Yardy at the non-strikers end. When Yardy heard it he apparently told Overton that it was unacceptable to say such things, and he was also told he should f*ck off somewhere too.
Id be more inclined to accept it as a heat of the moment thing, but Overton was invited to apologise by Zaidi afterwards, and felt he didnt need to because he hadnt done anything wrong. Quite how an England prospect thinks that the initial comment, and then the fact it didnt need an apology, are acceptable is quite staggering.
The saddest thing was the ECB and England Captain reactions to it. They only banned him on the "three strikes youre out policy" they have because it was the third time he was cited for such an outburst in a short amount of time, but little was seemingly said about the nature of the abuse. Apparently being racist is the same as generally being moronic and swearing, which is a dangerous precedent. He was found guilty of using general bad language, and not apparently racial motivated. So its ok to say to a British Asian lad he should "politely return to his country of origin", but use the word f*ck while doing it, youre in trouble.
Cook for his part seemingly stated Overton should show more responsibility but didnt mention anything about racism and downplayed the serious nature of it, and the ECB where keen to point out that in no way was the ban re-categorised so leniently because of Overtons involvement with England.... but they werent fooling anyone there.
I know Yorkshire's reaction was one of shock. Gale did the same thing and got banned a lot longer, and I believe that Jason Gillespie has had something to say on the burying of the issue.
Either way, Overton seems to be a pretty repugnant individual, not only on this case, but has consistently let himself down with his on field outbursts.