India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s return to international cricket hasn’t only been an eyewitness to him earning a Player of the Match award in the recently concluded first of four Test matches against Australia but also earning a demerit point and a 25% penalty on his match fee.
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Jadeja, who contributed in more ways than one on all the three days of the match, was reprimanded for applying an ointment to the index finger of his left hand right before bowling a ball on the first day at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.
A viral video which had started to do rounds after the day’s play took a controversial turn on the back of alluring all sorts of allegations around an attempt to tamper with the ball.
Having said that, match referee Andy Pycroft didn’t find Jadeja guilty of trying to tinker with the condition of the ball. Basically, the 34-year old player has been inflicted a penalty on for not informing the on-field umpires before applying anything on his bowling hand especially in the middle of an over.
“In reaching his decision to sanction the player along with the Level 1 sanction he imposed, the Match Referee was satisfied that the cream was applied to the finger purely for medical purposes. The cream was not applied as an artificial substance to the ball and consequently, it did not change the condition of the ball,” read a statement from the ICC (International Cricket Council).
What is Demerit Point in cricket?
First introduced in September 2016, demerit points were incorporated in cricketing rules to punish cricketers for various offences under ICC’s Code of Conduct. These offences are categorized into four Levels (Jadeja’s latest offence falls in Level 1 category as mentioned above) with severity of offence increasing with each Level.
The system punishes any player who collects four demerit points (number of points decided by the match referee) within 24 months by banning him/her for one Test or two white-ball matches. Repeated offenders face double the penalty if they accumulate eight demerit points within 24 months. Readers must note that Jadeja had been suspended for a Test match in Sri Lanka over half-a-decade ago due to the same reason.
| Level | Demerit Points |
| 1 | 1-2 |
| 2 | 3-4 |
| 3 | 5-6 |
| 4 | 7-8 |
It is noteworthy that former Australia captain Michael Clarke had also wished on similar lines of Jadeja informing umpires before applying anything on his finger whilst ruling out the possibility of any wrongdoing on Jadeja’s part before play commenced on Day 2.
