Sport - Cricket

Warne, Ganguly taken to task

Jaipur: The IPL on Friday took to task the captains of Kolkata Knight Riders, Sourav Ganguly, and Rajasthan Royals, Shane Warne, for breaching the ICC Rules and Code of Conduct.

Ganguly has been charged under 1.3 (showing dissent at an umpire’s decision) and Warne under 1.7 (public criticism of, or inappropriate comment on a match-related incident or match official) in the course of the match and after the match at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here on Thursday. Both have been fined 10 per cent of their match fees.

After Thursday’s episode the IPL has banned all players from speaking to the media on anything that happens on the field of play and guidelines have been issued to the eight teams.

On-field umpire G.A. Pratap Kumar has also been banned for one IPL match after he acquiesced to Ganguly’s request to refer the catch claimed by Graeme Smith to the third umpire Asad Rauf of Pakistan.

Following complaints that majority of teams are not adhering to the over rates rule, the IPL has decided to impose a fine of $500 per over with immediate effect and Match Referees have been instructed to implement the rule.

Lalit Modi, Chairman and Commissioner of the IPL, said here at a press conference, “Ganguly has been reprimanded and imposed a fine for showing dissent to the umpire’s decision.”

Warne criticised Ganguly at the press conference after the match and that has been taken as public criticism under level 1.7. “I have spoken to Ganguly and Warne and they understand this will not happen again. The objective of the IPL is to play under the spirit of cricket. It’s imperative all players, match officials, umpires and referees understand that. As far as the IPL and BCCI are concerned any incident, however small, will be noticed and action taken promptly.

“Players are passionate about the game and are hungry to win. That’s good. But one must stay within the spirit of cricket. They should not expect that the penalty will not be as severe as an ICC match. That’s the message we want to get across,” said Mr. Modi.

Pratap Kumar has been handed a one-match ban because he decided to adhere to what Ganguly had to say to him. “He should not have adhered to that and passed the decision to the third umpire. He should have consulted the square leg umpire (Rudy Koertzen) as per the rules. As he did not seem to know the rules, we have banned him from one match,” said Mr. Modi.

He also put an end to all speculation about Shoaib Akhtar’s participation for Knight Riders saying, “he has to be eligible to play for Pakistan to be eligible to play in the IPL. He has been banned by his Board for five years. The tribunal has allowed him to play international matches including the IPL.

“We had decided that we would adhere to the domestic guidelines of each and every cricket board. If he is banned by his country, he is of no use to us. We do not want to be in a situation wherein a player automatically becomes banned by his country and available only for the IPL. That’s not an acceptable situation for us.”

He also said that the ICC’s anti-doping and anti-corruption units are in India and all teams have been told that players will be picked up for random testing. “I think they have already started functioning, but they won’t give anything to me until they have the results.”

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