A debate on penalties is not normal in cricket. For years, it has been the domain of the Peles, the Maradonas, the Messis and the Ronaldos but never for the Sachins, Laras and Kohlis. But things changed drastically in the past week or so. The term which does not have a huge reputation in cricket glossary suddenly made headlines and is continuing to do so as the heavily packed week of international cricket continues with the latest penalty being slapped on Sri Lanka.
On-field umpires Marais Erasmus and S Ravi decided to award five penalty runs to England in the ongoing 2nd Test match after Sri Lankan batsman Roshen Silva was guilty of deliberately not putting the bat over the line while going for the second run.
The incident happened in the 86th over of Sri Lanka’s 1st innings when batsmen Roshen Silva and Akila Dananjaya were guilty of assuming that the ball – a cut shot from Roshen – would reach the boundary. Chasing the ball from short-third man, England’s Moeen Ali stopped it inches before the ropes. Seeing this, the Sri Lankan duo, who were having a stroll, sprang into action and decided to go for the second run. While there was no problem with Dananjaya who grounded his bat before returning for the second run, the umpires pulled up Roshen for not grounding his.
It was a clear case of negligence from Roshen’s part who first made the mistake of assuming that his cut shot would earn him a boundary and then did not even care to confirm whether he had completed the first run or not. After considerable discussion in the middle, they decided to dock Sri Lanka five runs and also signalled one-short, which cancelled the second run the Sri Lankan pair had completed.
According to ICC’s Rule is 18.5 "If either umpire considers that one or both batsmen deliberately ran short at that umpire's end, the umpire concerned shall, when the ball is dead, call and signal Short run and inform the other umpire of what has occurred and apply [five penalty runs]."
"I don't think Roshen did it deliberately," said Dimuth Karunaratne at the close of play. "He thought the ball had gone for four so he came back to his partner to give a high five. Those things can happen. It's part of the game, we don't blame him. We are not so worried about the five runs."
As a result, England would walk out to bat in their 2nd innings with five on board, which can well become crucial in a low-scoring encounter on a fast-crumbling Pallekele track.
A few days ago, the Pakistan Women’s team were docked 10 runs – two penalties of five-runs each – during their group league match against India in the ICC Women’s World T20. There, the Pakistan batters were guilty of running through the centre of the wicket multiple times despite getting warnings.