Bangladesh pacer Khaled Ahmed has been penalised for throwing the ball at South Africa batsman Kyle Verreynne during the second Test between the two teams at the St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has fined Khaled and handed him a demerit point.
The incident took place on Day 2 of the Test. Verreynne defended a ball back to Khaled in the 95th over. Khaled threw the ball at the stumps, although Verreynne made no attempts to take a run. The ball missed the stumps and struck the batter on his gloves.
Khaled immediately apologised but Verreynne was visible angry. Umpire Marais Erasmus had a word with skipper Mominul Haque. Even Bangladesh’s pace bowling coach Allan Donald came down from the dressing room.
The situation didn’t escalate from there but the ICC has fined Khaled 15 per cent of his match fee for breaking the ICC Code of Conduct.
ICC said in a press release that Khaled has breached Article 2.9 of the Code of Conduct which relates to throwing a ball at or near a player, player support personnel, umpire, match referee or any other third person in an inappropriate and/or dangerous manner during an International match.
This is Khaled’s first demerit point in the last 24 month-period. If a player receives four demerit points in 24 months, he or she gets suspended from one Test or two One-Day Internationals.
Match referee Andy Pycroft sanctioned the charges and Khaled also admitted to the offence.
Bangladesh lost the Tests in Durban and Port Elizabeth to lose the Test series 0-2. Bangladesh had made accusations of excessive sledging from South Africa in the first Test.
In the post-match press conference captain Mominul Haque alleged that the South African players verbally abused them.
Officials of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) also said that they would lodge a complaint to the ICC.