Following his outbursts during the Division 1 Championship match in August against Lancashire, Yorkshire County Cricket Club's captain Andrew Gale was not only banned from the last two matches of his side's season (and was prevented from accepting the County Championship trophy) by the England and Wales Cricket Board but will also miss the first two matches of the next season. Further, he has decided to go on an anger management course in an attempt to control his onfield language and behaviour, which has ensured that a potential racial abuse charge against him that the ECB were considering has been dropped.
The charge was already unlikely to be substantiated, given that the South African Ashwell Prince (who it had initially been suggested was the victim of such abuse) had publicly commented on a radio station in his home country that he had not considered the remarks to be racist.
Gale is not the first (and will not be the last) sportsperson in the public eye to let his anger get the better of him, which perhaps suggests that anger management may be something to come more to the fore in the future. Jimmy Anderson is another cricketer whose involvement in an alleged altercation with Ravindra Jadeja during England's test matches during the summer also led to him having to explain his actions, for which he was subsequently cleared of any wrong doing.
Last weekend's Chelsea versus Arsenal match in the Premier League saw Gunners' boss Arsene Wenger place his hands on Jose Mourinho as tensions mounted. It was not the first time that Wenger has shown signs of his emotions getting the better of him as water bottles have previously taken the brunt of his anger. Indeed Football managers have commonly seen a version of the "red mist" descending, Alan Pardew succumbing to an unseemly incident on the touchline last season as Newcastle United manager when he leant his forehead into an Hull City player for which he was heavily fined and banned.
The players also are not averse to showing their rage, as was all too ably demonstrated by Luis Suarez in the World Cup finals in Brazil and previously during a league match for Liverpool against Chelsea for which he received lengthy bans.
Tennis also sees its fair share of tantrums, whether it be a smashed racket after a bad point or the famous John McEnroe outbursts of old (which interestingly often seemed to improve his game afterwards).
Whether it is the heat of the battle or something deep down in the person's psyche may be questionable, but it does seem that the control of such emotions will only become more relevant in years to come. Sports people are subject to ever greater scrutiny (and intrusion) as television seeks new angles to get closer to the action, whether it be stump mikes in cricket or further post match analysis and reviews in other sports. Anger management experts would seem likely to be in for a busy time!
