Gun Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been fined for using ointment on his bowling hand without being granted permission in the first Test against Australia, but cleared of tampering with the ball during the hosts’ win by an innings and 132 runs.
Jadeja didn’t ask the umpires if he was allowed to use cream on his left hand in Australia’s first innings, resulting in the International Cricket Council dealing the spinner a 25 per cent match fee.
Jadeja admitted the offence and accepted the punishment.
AS IT HAPPENED: India v Australia, first Test
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Match referee Andy Pycroft deemed the 33-year-old, who was awarded player of the match for taking seven wickets and scoring a half-century, wasn’t tampering with the ball in the Nagpur Test.
“In reaching his decision to sanction the player … the match referee was satisfied that the cream was applied to the finger purely for medical purposes,” an ICC statement read.
“The cream was not applied as an artificial substance to the ball and consequently, it did not change the condition of the ball, which would have been in breach of … the ICC playing conditions.”
Indian team management told the ICC that Jadeja, who took the substance from teammate Mohammad Siraj’s hand, used the cream because of “swelling on the index finger of his bowling hand”.
After the story blew up, former Australian spinner Steve O’Keefe slammed backlash aimed at Jadeja, who was captured using the cream by cameras.
“So much (bullshit) and carry-on,” O’Keefe said on SEN radio.
“He rubbed something on his finger. Does he really have some sort of secret ingredient that is making him spin the ball more than he should?
“It’s nonsense.”
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Former Australian captain Michael Clarke also weighed in on the incident, defending Jadeja but also finding fault.
“He’s bowling so much, so he’s probably got a blister or cut on that finger,” Clarke said on his Big Sports Breakfast radio show.
“What he should have done there … he should have given the ball to the umpire and stand in front of the umpire while he was putting it on his finger.
“I don’t look at that and think it’s a thing; I just wish he didn’t have the ball in his hand. If he chucks the ball to the umpire and does that I don’t think there’s any comment made about that. It’s just the perception.
“I don’t think there’s anything to it.
“I could be 100 per cent wrong.”
On the contrary, former England captain Michael Vaughan was stunned by Jadeja’s move.
“What is it he is putting on his spinning finger? Never ever seen this”, Vaughan wrote on Twitter.
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