Melbourne, Dec 27 (IANS): Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar believes Virat Kohli’s fine over his shoulder collision with Sam Konstas on day one of Boxing Day Test is just a "slap on the wrist" and hopes that the talismanic batter is not remembered by the cricketing world for this incident.
On Thursday, during day one of the match, after the 10th over of Australia’s innings ended, Kohli appeared to change his walking direction and made an inappropriate shoulder bump into Konstas, who hit 60 off 65 balls on debut.
Later, Kohli was fined 20 per cent of his match fee and given a demerit point after he was found guilty of breaching Level 1 of Article 2.12 in the ICC Code of Conduct.
“That's just like a slap on the wrist. All these players are highly paid professionals and any fine has to be something which will be a deterrent.
“I do believe that maybe that is in the books that you have to fine X amount, so one can understand that the ICC match referee went by the books and by what the ICC conditions are playing conditions up.
"But it has to be somewhere. I just hope that Kohli, being one of the greatest cricketers in the world, is not remembered for this. He has got to be remembered for what he's done with the bat, how he's brought energy to cricket in India. That's what he should be remembered for,” said Gavaskar on Channel Seven.
On the other hand, former Australia captain Ricky Ponting felt Kohli’s fine wasn’t harsh enough. “I know there's precedents, you know, things that have happened in the past that have generally been a 15 to 25 percent fine, but let's have a think about the enormity of this yesterday.
“This is probably the most watched day of cricket for the whole year, all around the world. Imagine if it happens in a grade game on the weekend now. What's going to happen there? I think people are going to think that's almost acceptable now.
“Unfortunately for someone like Virat, as we got told as players and as senior players and as captains, sometimes it's just different for some people. He's a role model. He's someone that the cricketing world looks up to. So I personally don't think that the fine was harsh enough."
Speaking on Fox Cricket, former India cricketer and head coach Ravi Shastri believes Kohli will regret his actions and should consider himself lucky that the fine wasn’t huge enough to get him suspended from playing the Sydney Test.
“I think when he looks back at it Virat, he will think he is a little lucky with that kind of punishment. The umpires look at track record over the last couple of years and your track record and how you behave individually over some length of time. Then they come up with the punishment.
“The last thing I would like to see on a cricket field is physical contact. You don’t want that. This is sport. There is a line you draw and you don’t walk past that line. Virat has been a former captain. He is a very senior player. He has been on that stage for more than a decade and a half and when he looks back at that he won’t be too proud about it.
“One just hopes he learns from it. People do make mistakes and in the heat of the moment things can go awry, but I’m sure when he sees that again he will react differently in the future."
Former Australia wicketkeeper-batter Adam Gilchrist questioned the logic of fining cricketers financially as a deterrent for their poor on-field behaviour. “I don’t think a financial fine is really going to effect any one of these players. They earn significant money and it is not going to change the dial too much.
“But that fine and one demerit point is the same punishment as Mohammad Siraj and Travis Head got when they had a little verbal altercation and that was just heat of the moment. But that is the same punishment for Kohli.”