The on-field sparks from the recently concluded Test series between India and Australia continued in their ODI tri-series encounter, most notably after Rohit Sharma seemed to have violated an ‘unwritten rule of cricket’ in the 23rd over, and the Australians took it upon themselves to hector him for it.
A David Warner throw went for an over-throw run, much to the ire of the fielding team who claimed that the throw had deflected off Rohit Sharma for the extra run.
Footage shows Warner approaching Sharma between overs and mouthing the words ‘Speak English. Umpires John Ward and Kumar Dharmasena had to step in to separate the players in the resulting confrontation.
Warner was subsequently fined 50 per cent of his match fee by the ICC.
Not going to back down: Warner
Replays of the incident suggested that the throw had not taken a deflection, and Warner admitted that he had been in the wrong about starting a confrontation. “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, understand that theoretically I cannot speak Hindi.”
“I was in the wrong … I shouldn’t have engaged him,”
“I did the polite thing and asked him to speak English, therefore he did and I can’t repeat what he said.”
Warner, however, refused to tone his on-field behaviour, saying: “If people get on the wrong side of me, I’m not going to back down. We’re always there to play hard aggressive cricket, but you know what comes with that – sometimes you are going to get fined.
“We’ve just got to keep trying not to cross that line, because we’re all about playing cricket the right way.”
Australia remain undefeated in the tri-series and will face England in Hobart on Friday.
The video of the incident that sparked the outrage:
