David Warner has been fined 50 per cent of his match fees after indulging in an altercation with Rohit Sharma during the second ODI of the tri-series in Melbourne. Midway through India’s innings, Rohit and Suresh Raina ran for an overthrow, which didn’t sit well with Warner and some of the other Australian players.
Following the incident, Warner went up to Rohit and sparked a heated argument which the umpires had to cut short. In a radio interview the morning after the match, Warner admitted he was wrong in initiating the spat but defended himself saying he was only asking Rohit to “Speak English”.
“I was in the wrong. I got in trouble for technically engaging the player and you are not allowed to do that now,” Warner told Sydney’s Sky Sports Radio. “On the cricket etiquette side of things, when you throw a ball to the ‘keeper and it hits a player you technically don’t run.
“I think a few of the (Australian) boys said something to him and when I went over to say something to him, he sort of said something in their language and I said ‘speak English’ because, if you’re going to say something for me to understand, theoretically I cannot speak Hindi.
“I did the polite thing and asked him to speak English, therefore he did – and I can’t repeat what he said. I thought I was okay to ask him to speak English,” he said.
During the Test series, Warner claimed in a press conference that he believes the unnecessary chatting should stop on the cricket field. However, his preaching hasn’t been backed by practice.
While there is no official word from the ICC yet, Warner revealed that he has been fined for the incident. In the wake of this incident, Cricket Australia chief, James Sutherland, has issued a warning to the opening batsman “to stop looking for trouble”.
By: BCCI
