DHAKA: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman were fined on Friday for “deliberate physical contact” during the first One-day International between the sides, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said.

The two players were found to have breached the ICC code of conduct relating to “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact between players” during the Thursday’s match in Mirpur.

The ICC said a hearing was held on Friday morning by match referee Andy Pycroft in which television footage was used.

The incident occurred in the 25th over of the match when Dhoni made physical contact with debutant Mustafizur while running between the wickets for a single.

The left-arm fast bowler had to temporarily leave the field after the incident, leaving Nasir Hossain to complete his over.

He later returned to complete his five-wicket haul, winning man of the match award.

“My assessment was that Dhoni deliberately pushed and shouldered Mustafizur, which was inappropriate,” Pycroft said in an ICC statement.

The Zimbabwean match referee said he had fined Dhoni 75 per cent of his match fee because “cricket is a non-contact sport and the players are expected to avoid physical contact at all times”.

He said Mustafizur had initially pleaded not guilty but later changed his plea and accepted the sanction.

“Mustafizur was fined 50 per cent of his match fee after he admitted that his actions in not getting out of the batsman’s way were inappropriate and he should have done more to avoid the contact,” Pycroft said.—AFP

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2015

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