David Warner has been fined 15 per cent of his match fees after pleading guilty of making inappropriate comments about AB de Villiers, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Thursday.
Warner, the Australia opening batsman, conceded to accusing De Villiers, South Africa’s wicketkeeper-batsman, of ball-tampering without any basis.
In an interview to the Sydney-based Sky Sports Radio, Warner implied the South Africans of wrongdoing.
“We were actually questioning whether or not AB de Villiers would get the ball in his hand and with his glove wipe the rough side every ball. That’s another thing we have to try and bring up with the umpires,” he had said.
According to the ICC release, Warner was found to have breached Article 2.1.7 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to “public criticism of, or inappropriate comment in relation to an incident occurring in an International Match or any Player, Player Support Personnel, Match official or team participating in any International Match”.
The left-hander on Thursday accepted the sanction offered to him by Roshan Mahanama of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees.
Mahanama, a former Sri Lanka batsman, said: “It was disrespectful for David to publicly denigrate an opponent when commenting on a match-related incident, and imply that a South African player was engaging in sharp practice. I’m sure David will be careful when making public comments in future.”
The range of permissible sanctions for all first Level 1 offences is a warning or reprimand and/or the imposition of a fine of up to 50 per cent of the applicable match fee, according to the ICC statement.
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