The Oman cricket team were on Friday fined 40 per cent of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate against Zimbabwe in their ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier match.
Muhammad Javed of the ICC International Panel of Match Referees has imposed the sanction after Oman were ruled to be two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration. In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20 per cent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time.
Captain Zeeshan Maqsood pled guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing, the ICC said in a statement on Friday.
Meanwhile, Oman player Kaleemullah has been reprimanded for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during the same match.
Kaleemullah was found to have breached Article 2.5 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to “using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter upon his/her dismissal during an International Match.”
In addition to this, one demerit point has been added to the disciplinary record of Kaleemullah, for whom it was the first offence in 24 months.
The incident occurred in the 12th over of Zimbabwe’s innings, when Kaleemullah gave an inappropriate sendoff to Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine after dismissing him. The player accepted the sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing.
On-field umpires Roland Black and Wayne Knights, third umpire Asif Yaqoob and fourth umpire Martin Saggers levelled the charges against Kaleemullah.