Kohli fined 20% of his match-fee, handed 1 demerit point for Konstas incident

Virat Kohli has been fined 20% of his match fee and awarded one demerit point for for shoulder bumping Sam Konstas at the MCG on Thursday morning.

“Kohli was found to have breached Article 2.12 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to ‘inappropriate physical contact with a Player, Player Support Personnel, Umpire, Match Referee or any other person (including a spectator during an International Match’,” the ICC stated in a media release.

Cricket is not a contact sport and there are rules for body nudging in the game. Relevant here is another set of rules in ICC’s Code of Conduct (CoC). The article 2.12 of CoC reads: “Any form of inappropriate physical contact is prohibited in cricket. Without limitation, players will breach this regulation if they deliberately, recklessly and/or negligently walk or run into or shoulder another player or umpire.

“When assessing the seriousness of the breach, the following factors (without limitation) shall be taken into account: (i) the context of the particular situation, including, without limitation, whether the contact was deliberate (i.e. intentional), reckless, negligent, and/or avoidable; (ii) the force of the contact; (iii) any resulting injury to the person with whom contact was made; and (iv) the person with whom contact was made.”

The incident occurred after the end of the 10th over of Day One when Kohli was seen shoulder-nudging the debutant Australian opener in front of a 90,000-strong MCG crowd. It led to an exchange between the players with the other opener, Usman Khawaja, trying to cool things down.

Onfield umpires Joel Wilson and Michael Gough, along with third umpire Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid and fourth umpire Shawn Craig, levelled the charge. Kohli admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Andy Pycroft, and hence there was no need for a formal hearing.