Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting claimed that the 20 percent match fee sanction imposed on Indian star batsman Virat Kohli following a fray against debutant Sam Konstas “is inadequate”. A much awaited debut in Australia for Konstas happened to be the most entertaining in quite a while. The 19-year-old achieved headlines for having toyed around with Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, scoring 34 of his 60 runs against him. However, it wasn’t only purged as Kohli took the young lady on a fiery argument after bumping shoulder to shoulder with him. Kohli was fined 20 percent of his match fee by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and handed one demerit point for the fracas.
Ponting said, personally to himself, concerning the punishment, “I do not think really it [the punishment] was harsh enough.” I know there are precedents when similar infringements have incurred similar-sized penalties they have generally been between a 15 and 25 per cent fine, but let us have a think about the enormity of yesterday.”
“It is probably the most-watched day of cricket all year all around the world. Imagine if that happens in a grade game on the weekend now, what is going to happen there? I think people are going to think that that is almost acceptable now.”
“And unfortunately for someone like Virat, as we got told as players and as senior players, sometimes it is [the scale of punishment] just different for some people. He is a role model, he is somebody the cricketing world looks up to, so I personally do not think that the fine was harsh enough,” he concluded.
Even the former Indian cricketer termed the fine as a “slap on the wrist”, by stating: ‘That’s a slap on the wrist. These players are all highly paid professionals: any fine has to be something which is a deterrent. I just hope that Kohli, being one of the greatest players in the world, is not remembered for this but rather for what he has done with the bat and the energy he has done with the bat.’
Australia caught the toss and chose to bat first in front of an audience. Konstas building up to his half-century with 60 runs in 65 balls, consisting of six fours and two sixes, Usman Khawaja not far behind who scored 57 runs in 121 balls with six fours, Marnus Labuschagne scored 72 of 145 balls with 7 fours, and Steve Smith at 68*- not excluding these class knocks while proving the decision right, they took Australia to 311/6 at the day end despite the quick wickets claimed by India.