Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting doesn’t think the International Cricket Council (ICC) took the right call by letting Virat Kohli go with a 20% fine of his match fee. For the unaware, Kohli ran into debutant Sam Konstas yesterday at the change of ends after the 19-year-old had taken the Indian bowlers on.
Australia media against Kohli
It had started with sledging and soon escalated with Kohli deliberately coming into Konstas’ personal space. Although the 19-year-old didn’t care much about Kohli’s conduct, the Australian media wasn’t pleased. They have been at Kohli since, with some calling him a ‘clown’ for his behaviour.
Ponting unhappy with ICC for mild punishment to Virat Kohli
Ponting, who’d yesterday stated that it was Kohli who instigated the physical altercation, thinks the former Indian captain is lucky to go unscathed. The Punjab Kings coach feels that the ICC has been a little too mild by just handing a small fine to Kohli. Given how the ICC laws frown upon someone making physical contact, Kohli could have even been handed a 1-match ban.
Something similar had happened in 2018 when Kagiso Rabada had made physical contact with Steve Smith while celebrating and was handed a 2-match ban. Kohli did much more than Rabada but has fortunately escaped, and it isn’t sitting right with Ponting.
“Personally, I don’t think that the fine was harsh enough. I know there’s precedence, and things have happened in the past. Generally, there has been a 15-20% fine. Let’s think about the enormity of this yesterday. This is probably the most watched day of cricket for the whole year all around the world. Imagine what happens if this happens in a grade game on the weekend; now, what’s going to happen there? People are going to think that’s almost acceptable now. Unfortunately for someone like Virat, as we were told as senior players and captain, sometimes it’s just different for some people. He’s a role model; he’s someone the cricketing world looks up to. So, I personally don’t think the fine was harsh enough,” Ponting told 7Cricket.
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