Rajasthan Royals (RR) star all-rounder R Ashwin has been fined 25 percent of his match fee for a breach of IPL code of conduct during the game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Wednesday.
After narrowly beating the four-time champions at their own backyard, Ashwin had slammed the umpiring during the match. In his post-match thoughts, Ashwin felt surprised by how umpires decided to change the ball for the dew without any consultation with the players and had said, “I’m quite surprised the umpires changed the ball for dew on their own. It’s never happened before, and I’m quite surprised.”
“Rajasthan Royals’ Ravichandran Ashwin has been fined 25 Percent of his match-fee for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct during Match 17 of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on April 12,” read statement from IPL.
Ashwin later admitted to offence under Article 2.7 which prohibits players from criticising the match officials.
“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 statement further read.
As per Article 2.7 of IPL Code of Conduct: “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.”
Notably, Ashwin had pointed out the bad quality of umpiring in IPL 2023 and said that some of the decisions in this season has left him ‘flummoxed’. The star all-rounder was not very happy with umpires changing their ball for dew on their own during the CSK vs RR clash.
“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. I mean, it’s just the middle – left me flummoxed in a good or a bad way. It’s because I think what you need is a little bit of balance”, Ashwin had said.
The veteran said that the bowling team did not ask for the ball to be changed and on being asked why it was done, he was told that umpires had the right to do it.
“As a bowling team, we are not asking for the ball to be changed. But the ball was changed on the umpire’s 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. You can do whatever you want, but you just need to be in a standard going forward”, Ashwin had further said.