BCCI Reacts On Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Punishment Reports After Ugly On-Field Spat With Sri Lanka A Star
BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia was surprised to see social media speculation that the Indian board will take action against Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for his heated on-field exchange with Sri Lanka A team player Vishen Halambage.
- Vaibhav Sooryavanshi got engaged in a heated on-field exchange with Sri Lanka A team player Vishen Halambage
- BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia said that Indian board has no role to play in his punishment
- "The BCCI is not an authority, we should not intrude into the area," he said
BCCI secretay Devajit Saikia was also surprised to see social media speculation that the Indian board will take action against Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for his heated on-field exchange with Sri Lanka A team player Vishen Halambage during a recent A match. After a provocative comment from the Sri Lankan, there was an argument following which Sooryavanshi pushed Halambage when he came near the Indian. "A lot of things are going on in the social media that BCCI is contemplating action, etc. Do you want BCCI to step into the domain of match referee?," Saikia counter-questioned.
"The BCCI is not an authority, we should not intrude into the area where the match referee and the umpires are the main persons who can take any decision regarding any incident that had happened in the playground.
"Whatever had happened, it was a part of the game, and the BCCI have no role to play. The role is of the match referee. If anything is going wrong, he will take a call, the umpires will take a call, and there is a system in place," the eminent lawyer said.
Sooryavanshi had a fight with Sri Lanka A's Vishen Halambage. Pradeep Jeyapragash, the match referee, recommended fines "amounting to 50 per cent of their match fees" for the incident, according to a report by Sportstar. India A captain Tilak Varma faces a 30 per cent fine, the report added. The report added that since in A-team matches fines/sanctions are not imposed by the ICC, the match referee's recommendations have been forwarded to the BCCI and Sri Lanka Cricket. The two boards will now decide whether to "ratify and impose the proposed penalties."
Earlier, a report by PTI said Sri Lankan cricketer Vishen Halambage and senior wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella have been sanctioned on separate counts by the SLC-appointed match referee Pradeep Jeyapragash due to their conduct during the tri-nation A series game versus India.
As per sources, Dickwella, who actually stopped the Vaibhav Sooryavanshi-Halambage fracas from getting ugly, was sanctioned for excessive appealing.
Halambage was sanctioned for his provocative comments towards Indian batters after a Super Over win, which led to an almost physical confrontation with the 15-year-old Indian superstar.
Sooryavanshi was forced to push Halambage, who had come very close to him during their heated argument.
The quantum of sanctions hasn't been known.
There was no confirmation whether Indian players, including Sooryavanshi and his skipper Tilak Varma, who had a long argument with on-field umpires insisting they conduct a Super Over under fading lights, were just let off with warnings or handed official sanctions.
The incident happened when India were left to chase 17 in the Super Over after both teams were tied on identical scores of 265 each.
Sri Lanka A