World Cup 2019: 5 players who were fined or reprimanded

A long and huge sporting event like the ICC World Cup always comes up many laughable, controversial or angry moments. All of these are accepted as long as any cricketer does not cross the pre-determined line. However, there have been times when cricketers have chosen to let go of rules and express their feelings.

But expressing something unlawfully comes at a price. Often, the players are fined or reprimanded. Though a slight cut from their hefty match fee might not mean much, it hampers the image of a player.

Let us have a look at 5 players who were fined or reprimanded in the ongoing edition of World Cup

5. Carlos Brathwaite – West Indies

Carlos Brathwaite will remember his 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup campaign for his one-man struggle against New Zealand. He also made the headlines for a wrong reason. He was fined 15% of his match fee for showing dissent at the umpire’s decision.

This happened when Brathwaite’s West Indies were facing India at Manchester. It was found that the big all-rounder had breached article 2.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct. Brathwaite expressed his anger at the umpire in the 42nd over when he thought the umpire gave a ‘wrongful’ wide.

4. Virat Kohli – India

At the time of writing this article, India is sitting comfortably at the pole position of the points table. Hence, Indian skipper Virat Kohli should not worry about too many things going into the World Cup, but he might have been a bit worried when India faced Afghanistan.

After beating many top-class teams, tenth-placed Afghanistan almost pulled one over the Indians. Virat Kohli was fined 25% of his match fee for excessive appealing in that match and was also handed one demerit point. All’s well that ends well, as Mohammed Shami’s hat-trick gave India the desired victory.

3. Jason Roy – England

Unlike India, hosts England’s road to semi-finals was not very smooth. They had to deal with unexpected setbacks in the absence of their reliable opener Jason Roy. But once he was back into the team, there was no looking back. In a closely fought encounter against Pakistan, Roy was fined 15% of his match fees.

It was found that Roy had used obscene language. Unfortunately for him, his chosen words were perfectly audible via the microphone. He uttered the words after a misfielding. In addition to the fine, Roy also incurred one demerit point. England eventually went on to lose the game by 14 runs.

2. Sarfaraz Ahmed – Pakistan

Jason Roy was not the only player to be fined on 3rd June at Nottingham. Sarfaraz Ahmed, the Pakistani skipper, was fined for what is nowadays a very common occurrence. Ahmed had to sacrifice 20% of his match fees for a slow over rate. Given the character that Ahmed is, giving pieces of advice to his bowlers after every ball, this is not unexpected.

After taking time allowances into consideration, it was found that the men in green were one over short of the target. Except him, the rest of the players had to pay 10% of their match fees. Though Pakistan went on to win that game, it was of no use as they failed to make it to the semi-finals.

1. Kane Williamson – New Zealand

As expected, Sarfraz Ahmed is not the only mention on our list to be fined for slow over rate. Taking longer than the stipulated time to bowl out 50 overs is day-to-day incident nowadays, and more so for the Kiwis. Kane Williamson was fined 20% of his match fees for a slow over-rate against West Indies.

Like the Pakistani players, the New Zealand cricketers had to pay 10% of their match fees. Though Williamson made up for that by scoring a match-winning 148, he might get suspended if another such incident is repeated in this tournament.