Match Referee to hand official rebuke to Dravid, Vaughan

London, Aug 1 (UNI) Match Referee Ranjan Madugalle has decided to crack the whip and tell India and England captains to ensure their boys behave on the field after the second Test at Trent Bridge was marred by unsavoury incidents.

Rahul Dravid and Michael Vaughan will receive official rebuke before the third and final Test at The Oval starting August 9.

Speaking after India had completed their seven-wicket victory, Madugalle said while he had spoken to representatives of both teams about their conduct at Trent Bridge, he would officially address Vaughan and Dravid of their responsibility as captains to ensure that their players behave within the substance and spirit of the laws of cricket.

The second Test at Trent Bridge was marred by England's ''puerile'' jelly bean prank, for excessive sledging and for Indian pace bowler S Sreesanth's headstrong attempts at intimidatory bowling.

''I'll have a word with the captains then,'' Madugalle said.

''The most important thing is for the captains to realise their responsibilities and for that to cascade down to the rest of the team. People should remember the game for the quality of cricket that is played, that is the bottom line,'' the former Sri Lanka captain was quoted as saying by The Independent.

Madugalle had also fined Sreesanth half his match fee for what was seen as an avoidable collision with Vaughan at the wicket in England's first innings.

The 24-year-old Kerala pacer later unleashed a ''beamer''at Kevin Pietersen and forced Paul Collingwood to take evasive action from a bouncer delivered from two feet beyond the bowling crease, which Vaughan described as ''something you don't want to see in the game.'' The jelly bean prank, in which India's man-of-the-match Zaheer Khan, reacted angrily to finding sweets placed at the crease when he went out to bat, though, is unlikely to attract further punishment after being dealt with on the field by umpires Simon Taufel and Ian Howell.

Vaughan had also issued an apology on behalf of his team on the incident.

''We weren't throwing jelly beans at Zaheer from the slip cordon but I think two were left on the floor by the stumps at the drinks interval,'' he had said after the match.

''I guess one of the players might have left them as a little bit of a prank for the new batsmen and if it offended him in a huge way we apologise for that,'' Vaughan added.

''It has been blown out of proportion because it is a great story.'' Vaughan also denied that his boys' general behaviour for aiming verbal volleys at opponents had gone too far.

''I don't think we stepped over the line. Maybe we said a few things too much in the first innings but it's called gamesmanship, I don't think we've said anything untoward. We are just trying to play tough cricket and that's what most teams do at this level,'' he said.

UNI