'It's like trying to get players sent off in football'

Graham Thorpe has hit back in the controversy surrounding Nasser Hussain and his alleged remarks to Muttiah Muralitharan, implying that Sri Lanka have been resorting to football-style tactics to try to get their opponents sent off.

Thorpe, who top-scored in England's first innings with a four-hour 57, expressed his surprise that Hussain's comments were allowed to leave the field of play. "As cricketers, we have come to expect a little bit of jabbering out in the middle," said Thorpe. "Most of the time it's in the right spirit. The only thing that surprises me is not too many players tell tales out of school.

"You don't need to do it," he added. "Sometimes you can push [the banter] too far, but generally most players know where the line is. You don't have to run off and tell people about it."

With the ICC beginning to clamp down on player behaviour, Thorpe believes there is a growing tendency for teams to highlight incidents that would once have been taken as part and parcel of a day's Test cricket. "There's quite a few of us in the dressing room who've taken plenty of stick off certain cricket teams over the years and we kept our mouths shut about it," he revealed. "It's like trying to get players sent off in football by waving hands at the ref and telling him it's got to be a yellow or red card - you don't need to do it. That's not sportsmanship in my book.

"A certain amount of what goes on on the field should stay on it unless it is blatantly obvious what is going on. There has always been a little bit of chat going on out there and it is no big deal."

Clive Lloyd, the match referee, asked for the stump microphones turned up to maximum in the aftermath of the Hussain-Marali spat. Listening to a direct feed in his room, he could pick up almost everything being said within 30 yards of the bat.