Pace legend Courtney Walsh today said the despicable on-field spat between West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard and Australian seamer Mitchell Starc during an IPL match was not a pretty sight and called for "controlled aggression" from cricketers.
"I was travelling and saw it on YouTube, so I can't say exactly the whole build up of it. It didn't look a pretty sight when you saw it but in the heat of the moment, these things sometimes do happen. For me it is how it ends. If both players will accept their responsibility in terms of what happened," Walsh told reporters here at the Superpacer event.
"That is not what you want to see on field of play and that is what you want youngsters to watch and think that is the norm. Hopefully things have been sorted out and whatever action needs to be taken has been taken and we can return to normalcy," he added.
The incident happened during an IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Royals Challengers Bangalore when West Indies all-rounder Pollard hurled a bat at Australian left-arm pacer Starc after the latter delivered the ball to him despite the batsman having backed off from the crease.
It was an ugly incident as Pollard had advanced menacingly at Starc before throwing his bat which, luckily, hit the turf well away from the bowler.
Pollard had been fined 75 per cent of his match fee for throwing his bat at Starc, while the Australian fast bowler was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for conduct contrary to the spirit of the game.
The former West Indies skipper said things would be said on field but people want to see controlled aggression.
"You are going to have words said from time to time, I have nothing against it. I think controlled aggression is what everybody wants to see," said Walsh, who took 512 wickets in his 132-Test international career.
"You don't want to see. You don't want it to get ugly where the fans are looking on or the fans in the stadium think it's the norm. I have nothing against things being said but everything should be controlled and not get too personal."
Walsh had shown great sportsmanship during a 1987 World Cup match where he didn't run Pakistan No 11 batsman Salim Jaffer out, who had backed up at non-striker's end, and West Indies lost that match.
