Rossouw likely to be penalized for Tamim shoulder barge

Rossouw likely to be penalized for Tamim shoulder barge: The ICC has found Rilee Rossouw guilty of breaching their Code of Conduct and docked 50% of his match fee, after he was involved in a shoulder-barging incident with Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal during the second ODI in Mirpur, Dhaka.

The incident in consideration took place after Tamim was bowled off an inside edge during Kagiso Rabada’s first over. Rossouw, who was walking towards the huddle that had gathered around Rabada near the broken stumps, went across Tamim and appeared to shove it away with his left shoulder. Tamim immediately pointed this out to the umpires, who probably missed the incident as they were looking to retrieve the ball from the bowler.

Rossouw was found to have flouted Article 2.2.7 of the code, which relates to “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact with a player, player support personnel, umpire, match referee or any other Person (including a spectator) in the course of play during an International Match”.

It also adds that “without limitation, players will breach this regulation if they deliberately walk or run into or shoulder another player”. Rossouw pleaded guilty to the charge laid by the match referee David Boon and the subsequent penalty was accepted without the need for a formal hearing.

The Match Referee David Boon was quoted by the ICC, “Rilee was very mature in discussions relating to the charge. He felt it was inappropriate but not deliberate, an explanation to which I agreed,”

“However, there is no place for any form of physical contact in our game and such actions should be punished.”

Later, Farhaan Behardien, who was the last person to walk past Tamim before Rossouw, said that there was no malice intended from the fielder but admitted there was a lot of “heat” between the two sides. Abruptly after the incident, the broadcasters showed three replays from the same angle.

“There was a bit of heat in the game and also when we were batting, especially when Kagiso was batting. We are all men you know. It’s international sport cricket with lots of distortion floating around,” Behardien said. “I think he (Rossouw) was just running through to KG (Kagiso Rabada) to congratulate him for the wicket. He didn’t even look at Tamim. Hopefully the umpires will see that there were no malice.

“Tamim maybe walked off a bit slowly, maybe disappointed and he reacted and the umpire saw it. Maybe a big meal was made of it, more than what should have been.”