“Dhoni deliberately pushed and shouldered Mustafizur, which was inappropriate”
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was fined 75 per cent of his match fee and Bangladesh pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman was docked 50 per cent of his match fee for their on-field collision during the first ODI on Thursday.
The incident occurred in the 25th over of India’s innings when Dhoni was running for a single after hitting a shot to mid-off.
Rahman seemed to move into Dhoni’s way when he was taking the run, which resulted in the Indian captain shoving the debutant out of his way. Rahman was shaken up after taking the hit and left the field for a short while before returning with a vengeance as he wreaked havoc by claiming a five-wicket haul and leading Bangladesh to a 79-run win.
Earlier in the innings, India opener Rohit Sharma had pointed his finger at Rahman when the 19-year-old got in his way while he was running down the wicket.
Both Dhoni and Rahman pleaded not guilty to their charges, which led to a formal hearing taking place.
After numerous replays were watched during the hearing, match referee Andy Pycroft upheld the fines as he found both players guilty of breaching Article 2.2.4 of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Code of Conduct, which relates to “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players in the course of play during an international match”.
“In the hearing, Dhoni defended the charge on the basis that the bowler was on the wrong line and realising that he couldn’t avoid the collision, he used his hand and arm to push him away as he went through to ‘minimise the impact,'” Pycroft said. “However, my assessment was that Dhoni deliberately pushed and shouldered Mustafizur, which was inappropriate.
“Even if there was a narrow gap between the runner [Raina] and the bowler, an experienced Dhoni should have tried to avoid the collision as cricket is a non-contact sport and the players are expected to avoid physical contact at all times. On this basis, I fined Dhoni 75% of his match fee.
“Mustafizur was fined 50% of his match fee after he admitted that his actions in not getting out of the batsman’s way were inappropriate and he should have done more to avoid the contact.”