IPL 2023 | Ashwin fined 25% match fee after questioning umpires' ball-replacement policies in dewy conditions

Ravichandran Ashwin found himself in another controversy on Thursday that has led to him being fined 25% of his match fee from the encounter against Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk on April 12. The spinner had spoken out about the umpires' modus operandi with regard to the changing of balls during heavy dew and asked for uniformity of rules across all matches. However, by doing so, he was deemed to be in breach of the Indian Premier League's Code of Conduct's Article 2.7, with the Level 1 offence having a fixed reprimand.

The Article quoted by the IPL in its statement mentions that a player would be fined in case of “public criticism of, or inappropriate comment in relation to an incident occurring in a Match or any Player, Team Official, Match Official or Team participating in any Match, irrespective of when such criticism or inappropriate comment is made.”

The saga started in the 12th over of the second innings with CSK chasing a target of 176. After Ashwin sent Shivam Dube back to the pavilion, the umpires decided to voluntarily switch balls due to the excessive dew at play. While the move would have benefitted the off-spinner, who eventually finished with match-winning figures of 2/25, Ashwin expressed 'surprise' given it was an unprecedented decision by the umpires even though it is accounted for in the laws of the game.

"I'm quite surprised the umpires changed the ball for dew on their own. It's never happened before and I'm quite surprised. Some of the decisions in this year's IPL on the field have left me a little flummoxed, to be honest. It left me flummoxed in a good or bad way because what you need is a little bit of balance. We're going as a bowling team and we're not asking for the ball to be changed. But the ball was changed on the umpire's accord. What reason - I did ask the umpire but he said we can change it. So I hope every time there's dew they can change it - every single time going forward in this IPL. You can do whatever you want but you need to be standard," the veteran was quoted saying by ESPN Cricinfo in the post-match press conference.