ICC penalises Yashasvi Jaiswal and Asitha Fernando for on-field physical altercation

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has levied heavy penalties on Yashasvi Jaiswal and Asitha Fernando following day 1 of the ongoing second Test between India and Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) in Colombo.

Both players were found guilty of breaching Article 2.12 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel. It relates to “inappropriate physical contact with a Player, Player Support Personnel, Umpire, Match Referee or any other person (including a spectator during an International Match).”

Both Jaiswal and Fernando have been fined 25 per cent of their match fees and handed one demerit point each. Notably, this is their first offence in the last 24 months. They have accepted the sanctions imposed by the match referee Andy Pycroft. Therefore, there was no need for any formal hearing.

The incident unfolded on the final delivery of the 17th over. Asitha bowled a length ball which came back sharply into Jaiswal and penetrated his defence, knocking his off-stump over. Jaiswal, who looked crestfallen, was on 45, having laced nine boundaries, and hung around in despondency before beginning to trudge off towards the dressing room.

However, he was given a send-off, possibly in correlation with his banter with Niroshan Dickwella in the Galle Test. The India opener turned back and got into a heated exchange with Fernando. Both players headbutted each other mildly before the Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva separated them.

Sri Lanka Playing XI

Lahiru Udara, Kamil Mishara, Pasindu Sooriyabandara, Kamindu Mendis, Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Sonal Dinusha, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Keshara Nuwantha, Prabath Jayasuriya, Lahiru Kumara, Asitha Fernando

Bench: Sahan Arachchige, Milan Priyanath Rathnayake, Vishwa Fernando

Support Staff: Gary Kirsten, Vikram Rathour, Lasith Malinga, Rene Ferdinands, Ramakrishnan Sridhar

India's playing XI

Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Saransh Jain, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

Bench: Kuldeep Yadav, Sarfaraz Khan, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar

Support Staff: Gautam Gambhir, Morne Morkel, Subhadeep Ghosh