By IANS,
New Delhi : India opener Gautam Gambhir has been banned for one Test match by Match Referee Chris Broad after he was found guilty of deliberately elbowing Australian cricketer Shane Watson during the ongoing third Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla here.
Gambhir, who has been in terrific form in the series, will have to sit out the final Test in Nagpur, but the Indian cricket board is likely to go for an appeal against the decision.
Both Gambhir and Watson were found violating the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Code of Conduct when they were involved in a skirmish on the opening day of the Test match here Wednesday.
Watson was fined 10 percent of his match fee Thursday evening while Gambhir’s hearing was adjourned to Friday morning.
“The decision to find Gambhir guilty of a level 2 offence is indicative of the fact that any degree of physical contact is unacceptable,” Broad said while announcing the decision.
“I would have been obliged to impose a minimum penalty of a two-Test match ban. But in the view of the umpires, the facts of this case – the lightness of the physical conduct and the element of provocation – would not justify such a penalty,” he said.