BCCI has handed a one-match ban to Ankit Bawne from Maharashtra for contesting an umpire’s decision during a Ranji trophy fixture last year.
Due to this ban, he will miss out on a match against Baroda in Nashik. The BCCI has informed the Maharashtra squad of this decision during their Group A fixture in Nashik.
In the match in question, Ankit Bawne refused to leave the field after being given out in their fifth game against Services and created quite a commotion. However, there was conclusive evidence that the ball had bounced before Shubham Rohilla completed the catch at the slip of the Amit Shukla ball.
He was the stand-in captain in the match and couldn’t review the decision as the match was on a live stream and not televised. It meant that there was no infrastructure available for DRS to be in place. He refused to leave the field and the play was suspended for 15 minutes before the game resumed. The match referee Amit Sharma and Maharashtra coach Sulakshan Kulkarni intervened to calm things down.
After the match, Bawne lashed at the quality of umpiring in domestic cricket in India. He said, “Players are subject to fines and reprimand, what about proper assessment of umpires? Why do the same erring umpires continue to officiate and play spoilsport? When there are blunders of this nature, the anger is justified.”
The regular captain of Maharashtra, Ruturaj Gaikwad, also posted the video of dismissal on social media at the time of the incident. He was on his India A duty in Australia.
This season, Bawne has been the most prolific batter for Maharashtra. He has scored 361 runs from five matches at an average of 51.57. He has scored one century and two half-centuries.
