What happens on the field ...

South African cricket coach Mickey Arthur is the latest to fall into the trap of believing the turf sporting fixtures are played on is some sort of hallowed ground:

Arthur said he was not happy about the stump microphones. "They are a bit intrusive," he said. "What is said on the field should stay on the field."

If you rewind history you'll probably find stump mics were put in place to hear nicks off the bat - what players say has been an added bonus - and in some repsects if players are stupid enough to say something stupid within range then they are ... stupid.

There's two things here: first, the comment "They're like animals" that was picked up is surely not that bad? Probably in the category of Ian Healy's famous assessment of portly ex-Sri Lankan Arjuna Ranatunga as an "overweight, fat c***" and certainly a few shades lighter than another Australian to Sri Lankan verbal - a simple "black c***" that did land Darren Lehmann in hot water. And he didn't use the "what is said on the field stays on the field" defence.

Secondly and more importantly this is the 21st century people. A piece of grass used for sporting competition is no longer immune from criminal laws and civil decency and if you transgress expect consequences. A few days ago, media reported an English football player is spending 4 months at Her Majesty's pleasure for breaking an opponent's jaw with a punch. Good job. Sport is no excuse for thuggery. Nor is it an excuse for racist insults or any other kind of behaviour society at large would find unacceptable.

So Mickey, if one of your players is dumb enough to say something out of line - it doesn't stay on the field - it winds up in the newspapers and in the match referee's office, where it belongs.

P.S. The words "NZ cricket team" or "Blackcaps" are banned from today's vocabulary.