ICC sentenced the entire Afghan teamImage Credit source: X.com/Afghanistan Cricket Board
Any kind of mistake in a cricket match is usually punished immediately. If the batsman misses the catch, the fielding team has to suffer the consequences. If the bowler no-balls, he and the entire team suffer loss. But there are some mistakes which are committed by the entire team together and are punished later. One such punishment has been given to Afghanistan cricket team, on which ICC has fined. This is the mistake of ‘slow over rate’, due to which captains and sometimes the entire team is often punished and this time Afghanistan has become its victim.
Because of this, a strict fine was imposed
This action has been taken against Afghanistan due to slow bowling in the test match against Zimbabwe. The only test match was played in Harare between hosts Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, which was easily won by Zimbabwe. But not only the defeat brought pain for Afghanistan, but the team captained by Hashmatullah Shahidi was also punished by the ICC for violating the code of conduct. ICC announced this by issuing a press release.
According to the press release of ICC, as per Article 2.22 of the Code of Conduct, 5% match fee is deducted for every over of all the players of the team making mistakes due to slow over rate during the match. In this match, on-field umpires Nitin Menon and Adrian Holdstock, third umpire Forster Mutijwa and fourth umpire Percival Sijara found the Afghan team 5 overs behind the scheduled time. In this way, 25 percent match fee of every player of the Afghan team was deducted. Hashmatullah Shahidi accepted the mistake of his team and accepted the punishment.
Afghanistan’s crushing defeat
Talking about the match, this match proved to be very bad for Afghanistan. Afghanistan scored only 127 runs in the first innings, in response to which Zimbabwe made a big score of 359 runs in the first innings and took a lead of more than 200 runs. This was such a big lead that the Afghan team could not take it even in the second innings and got out for just 159 runs and lost the match by an innings-73 runs.