India v Sri Lanka: MS Dhoni escapes breaching the new ICC law on fake fielding

Team India registered a comfortable win against Sri Lanka in the Mohali ODI to level the series 1-1. Everything went just about perfect for the Indian team on the day. However, this could have been hampered if their star player MS Dhoni would have been found guilty of breaching a new ICC law. The new ICC law prevents the players from fake fielding – or pretending to field the ball in order to distract the batsman.

During the Sri Lankan innings, in the 11th over, Angelo Mathews was running to the wicketkeeper end. MS Dhoni initially wanted to grab the throw that came from the third man. But sensing that the ball would go on to hit the stumps, Dhoni let the ball slip through the gap of his gloves. Many believed that this could be a potential breach of the law.

As clearly stated by Law 41.5 of the MCC, the fake fielding law deals with “deliberate distraction, deception or obstruction of batsman”. Clause 41.5.1 states: “it is unfair for any fielder wilfully to attempt, by word or action, to distract, deceive or obstruct either batsman after the striker has received the ball.”

Dhoni escapes the breach

This law is applicable from October 1, 2017 onwards. The first player to be booked under the law was Marnus Labuschagne of Queensland who teased the CA XI batsman Param Uppal during a domestic game in Australia. However, in this particular case, MS Dhoni was neither trying to act nor did he tease the batsman by pretending to have grabbed the ball already. Hence, he escaped the punishment of breaching the law.

However, when keeping the purpose of the law as the base rule- “that fielders were deliberately pretending to have the ball as a means of fooling the batsmen, thereby preventing them from taking further runs”, as per Fraser Stewart, MCC’s Laws of Cricket manager – Dhoni was neither found to have pretended the collection of the ball nor was he seen throwing it to stop a run.

Here are the pictures that illustrate the incident: