Mark Waugh, on punditry duties during the BBL, is of the opinion that Tom Curran, who was handed a four-match suspension for intimidating an umpire, should have received a lighter punishment.

Footage from a pre-match practice session between Sydney Sixers and Hobart Hurricanes from December 11 shows Curran practising his run-up on the main pitch. One of the umpires seemingly tried to talk him out of it, but Curran didn’t relent. When the umpire positioned himself at the crease, physically looking to prevent Curran from running on the pitch, the England all-rounder ran in the umpire’s direction, before side-stepping at the last moment.

Curran copped a Level 3 offence of Cricket Australia’s Code of Conduct, amounting to a four-game suspension. The act garnered responses from the world: while most criticised Curran, even demanding a stricter punishment, some suggested a lighter penalty would have been sufficient. Among the second kind was Waugh.

“Everyone’s going to have their own opinion of this. It’s a Level 3 offence, intimidating an umpire,” Waugh said, speaking to Isa Guha. “Look, it was silly, there was no need for it, but I think four games is a bit too much. For a marquee player, really good player, we know that, I would have given him two games and put him on a suspended sense if he does it again. Then a more severe punishment.

“So yeah, I would say two games rather than four.”

Tom Curran has been suspended for four BBL matches after pre-game ‘intimidation’ of an umpire ❌

Here’s the incident in question 👇#BBL13 pic.twitter.com/dE6wVPOwQT

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) December 21, 2023

Among those defending Curran was Sixers captain Moises Henriques, claiming that “you can’t quite understand the context” just by watching the video.

“I’ve seen the ten-second clip; it doesn’t look great but… you can’t quite understand the context there either,” Henriques said. “There was a bit of communication before and after, [and] that probably hasn’t been released either.”

Elsewhere, Brad Hogg suggested that the umpire, Muhammad Qureshi, too was at fault for not “de-escalating” the situation.