Ravindra Jadeja has been suspended from the 3rd Test and it is a shame for Indian cricket to face such serious charge. Thus Virat Kohli’s winning side saw a man of the match at Colombo and received suspension order for Kandy match. Breaching article 2.2.8 of the ICC code of conduct, throwing a ball at or near a player is inappropriate manner during an International match is punishable. Two field umpires, third and fourth umpires and the Match referee all found him guilty and now the star player will be out of action. This suspension will remain in Jadeja’s disciplinary record and if he reaches the next threshold of more demerit points with next 24 month period he will receive more marching order. Playing the game in a sportive way despite win or losses is the hallmark of a player. Jadeja proved it otherwise.
It appears that R Ashwin was somewhat neglected to give importance to Jadeja. Jadeja lost 50% of the match fee for the serial offense and the team would like to compensate him by projecting him to the player of the match status. But when a player receives penalty points during a match and punished later on, how he deserves the man of the match or the man of the series award? After all a serious offense attracting punishment needs to be counted in the performance award also as a minus point. Jadeja of course escaped with a lighter punishment.
Such an act does not augur well for Ravi Shastri and his team as Kumble was having more control over the team and the winning streak against stronger opposition happened during his regime as coach. Kohli is trying to play double game and a more talented Kuldeep Yadav is kept in reserve just to promote Jadeja.
Anandambal Subbu
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
