Bishnoi among five players sanctioned

DUBAI: Two Indians — Akash Singh and Ravi Bishnoi — and three Bangladesh players were on Tuesday found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute and handed suspension points for the ugly on-field confrontation that marred the Under-19 World Cup final in South Africa.

Akash and Bishnoi along with Bangladesh’s Md Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain and Rakibul Hasan were found guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct after the two sides nearly came to blows following Bangladesh’s three-wicket win for their maiden U-19 World Cup title on Sunday.

“Five players have been found guilty of a Level 3 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Support Personnel ... (they) were charged with violating Article 2.21 of the code, whilst Bishnoi received a further charge of breaching Article 2.5,” the ICC said in a statement.

The article 2.21 of the ICC code relates to conduct that bring the game into disrepute. It covers public acts of misconduct, unruly public behaviour and inappropriate comments which are detrimental to the interests of the game.

One suspension point amounts to a player being ineligible for one ODI or T20I, U-19 or A team international match. However, all of these players are set to progress to the senior set up now and are unlikely to be affected by this.

“All five players have accepted the sanctions proposed by ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup Match Referee Graeme Labrooy,” it added.

Some Bangladesh players got carried away while celebrating their historic win over India in the final. While their captain Akbar Ali apologised for the “unfortunate incident”, his Indian counterpart Priyam Garg felt it is something that should not have happened.