Rajasthan Royals’ Ravichandran Ashwin has been fined 25% of his match-fee for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct during Match 17 of the Indian Premier League 2023 between Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on April 12.
The league said in a statement that Ashwin admitted to the Level 1 Offence under Article 2.7 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct. It pertains to “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.”
For Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the Match Referee’s decision is final and binding.
When speaking about bowling with dew, Ashwin said that it was never easy. But he went on to add, “I’m quite surprised the umpires changed the ball for dew on their own. It never happened before. 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 has left me flummoxed in a good or a bad way. Because I think what you need is a little bit of balance.”
Ashwin explained that if the ball could be changed for dew midway through the innings, he hoped it becomes the standard.
“As a bowling team, we are not asking for the ball to be changed, but the ball was changed on the umpires accord. On what reason, I mean I did ask the umpire, he said ‘we can change it.’ So I just hope everytime there is dew they can change it. Every single time going forward in this IPL. You can do whatever you want. You just need to be in the standard,” he added.
Ashwin was the player of the match as Royals beat CSK at his home ground in Chennai.
You can watch Ashwin’s press conference video on iplt20 here but the part about the umpires has been edited out.