Aug. 26: India batsman Virat Kohli has been fined 15 per cent of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during the last league match against New Zealand, here on Wednesday.
The top-order batsman, who was given out caught behind for eight, pleaded guilty to a Level 1 offence and later accepted the proposed sanction from match referee Alan Hurst. He was found to have breached 2.1.3 of the code which relates to “showing dissent at an umpire’s decision”.
Kohli, who replaced Rohit Sharma in the team, stood his ground and looked at the umpire for a considerable time before eventually leaving the pitch. This was considered to be a show of dissent, a fact accepted by the player himself. Because Kohli pleaded guilty and accepted the proposed sanction the match referee felt there was no requirement for a formal hearing.
The charge was brought by on-field umpires for the match — Asad Rauf and Asoka de Silva, third umpire Kumar Dharmasena and fourth official Gration Liyanage. “Accepting umpires’ decisions is part and parcel of playing cricket and on this occasion Virat clearly showed dissent when he had been given out,” said Hurst.