 Sehwag fined for excessive appealing
St. Lucia, June 8: Brian Lara went scott free after angrily waggling his finger at an umpire but Indian vice-captain Virender Sehwag was fined for "prematurely celebrating" a dismissal in the drawn first cricket Test. Match referee Jeff Crowe, former New Zealand captain, fined Sehwag 20 per cent of his match fee after the player pleaded guilty in a hearing after play concluded in Antigua on Tuesday. The charge was brought by umpires Asad Rauf, Simon Taufel and Billy
Doctrove.
Rauf, a Pakistani, was at the receiving end of the West Indies captain's anger when he snatched the ball and gesticulated at him during the controversial Dhoni dismissal on the fourth evening of the match. An ICC statement said Sehwag was found to have breached Clause 1.5 of the ICC Code of Conduct which relates to "the practice of celebrating a dismissal before the decision has been given."
Sehwag, it seems, has a special affinity with Match Referees. The Delhi batsman was banned for one Test for a similar offence on his debut tour of South Africa in 2001 by Mike Denness, an episode which threatened to split world cricket. Jagmohan Dalmiya, the then president of the Indian Cricket Board, reacted by getting Denness removed as Match Referee for the following Test which, however, was withdrawn of its official status by the ICC. And Sehwag ultimately served the ban by sitting out of the first Test of the home series against England that followed next. (Agencies)
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