After facing an embarrassing defeat against Australia in the first Ashes Test at the Gabba, England have now been fined 100 per cent of their match fees and see a deduction of five ICC World Test Championship (WTC) points for maintaining a slow over-rate.
The ICC on Saturday confirmed that match referee David Boon found England five overs short of their target for the contest, considering time allowances.
It’s the second instance when Joe Root and his team have been penalized this year as they were stripped of two WTC points for a similar offence during the Trent Bridge Test against India in the English summer.
On that occasion, England were fined 40 per cent of their match fees for being two overs behind the required rate.
Meanwhile, Australia batter Travis Head, who was the ‘Player of the Match’ in Australia winning the first Test, has been fined 15 per cent of his match fees for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct.
Head, who played a counter-attacking knock of 152 runs in Australia’s first innings, was found to have breached Article 2.3 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to ‘use of an audible obscenity during an International Match. So now, one demerit point has been added to the disciplinary record of Head.
The incident took place in the 77th over of Australia’s first essay on Thursday, when Head used a foul language after being beaten by a Ben Stokes delivery.
Australia won the Ashes opener by nine wickets on Saturday. The hosts dismissed well-settled Joe Root (89) and Dawid Malan (82) early on day four, triggering a collapse of the remaining English batting unit.
After bundling out the visitors for 297 in their second innings, Australia raced to the required 20 runs in 5.1 overs at a loss of Alex Carey’s wicket.
