Taking note of the ugly on-field spat between Mohammed Siraj and Travis Head during the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Adelaide Oval, the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced sanctions for both players for breaching Level 1 ICC Code of Conduct.
Level 1 breaches carry a minimum penalty of an official reprimand, a maximum penalty of 50 per cent of a player’s match fee, and one or two demerit points.
Accordingly, Indian pacer Siraj has been docked 20 per cent of his match fee, while Head escaped a penalty even though he was reprimanded for the breach. Additionally, both players received one demerit point each after their first offence in the last 24 months but escaped suspension
Siraj and Head were involved in a heated on-field exchange after the Indian quick gave an expletive-laden send-off to the Aussie left-hander. Siraj was hit for a six by Head, but in the very next delivery, the Indian bowled a yorker to dismiss the star batter on 140.
The incident occurred in the 82nd over when, upon dismissing Head, Siraj came within close proximity to him and gave him a send-off by pointing towards the direction of Australia’s dressing room. On his part, Head reacted to the send-off in an aggressive and inappropriate manner.
Following the incident, Siraj was also subjected to boos from the Adelaide crowd for targeting their favourite son — Travis Head.
“Siraj has been fined 20 per cent of his match fee after being found to have breached article 2.5 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel which relates to ‘using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter upon dismissal’, the ICC said in a statement.
The statement added that Head was reprimanded after he was found to have breached Article 2.13 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to the “abuse of a player, player support personnel, umpire or match referee during an international match.”
Siraj and Head admitted their respective offences and accepted the sanctions proposed by match referee Ranjan Madugalle and, as such, there was no need for a formal hearing. The charges were levelled by the on-field umpires Chris Gaffaney and Richard Illingworth, third umpire Richard Kettleborough and fourth umpire Phillip Gillespie.