Rajasthan Royals spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has been fined 25 Percent of his match-fee for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct during Match 17 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Wednesday, according to a BCCI statement. While the statement did not specify as to what was Ashwin’s offence, a BCCI source told NDTV that it was due to the ‘comments on umpiring’ that the spinner made during the post match press conference for which he was fined.
“Ashwin admitted to the Level 1 Offence under Article 2.7 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct. For Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the Match Referee’s decision is final and binding,” the BCCI said in the release.
Article 2.7 of code of conduct for players and team officials relates to “public criticism of, or inappropriate comment in relation to an incident occurring in a match or any player, team official, match official or team participating in any match, irrespective of when such criticism or inappropriate comment is made”.
Ashwin has been left puzzled by the umpires’ decision to change the ball on their own because of the dew in the IPL match against Chennai Super Kings, and called for consistency while taking such decisions. The heavy dew at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday night forced the umpires to intervene and change the ball during the chase, leaving Ashwin, who returned figures of 2/25, “surprised”.
The Royals defeated the four-time IPL champions by three runs in a last-ball thriller, with CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja unable to score 21 runs off the last over in their chase of 176 for victory.
Ashwin said he had never before seen the umpires changing the ball because of excessive dew.
“I’m quite surprised the umpires changed the ball for dew on their own. It’s never happened before and I’m quite surprised. Some of the decisions in this year’s IPL on the field have left me a little flummoxed to be honest,” said the India stalwart at the post-match press conference.
“I mean, (it) left me flummoxed in a good or a bad way. It’s because I think what you need is a little bit of balance,” said Ashwin, who was adjudged ‘Player of the Match’.
“As a bowling team, we are not asking for the ball to be changed. But the ball was changed on the umpires’ accord. I did ask the umpire and he said we can change it.
“So I just hope every time there is dew they can change it every single time going forward in this IPL that sort of, you can do whatever you want, but you just need to be in a standard going forward,” he added.
With PTI inputs
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