Indian team fined for slow over rate

Each Indian player was fined 15 per cent of his match fee, with Ganguly receiving a 30 per cent fine.

Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has been charged for time wasting and the Indian team fined for a slow over rate in its two-wicket, last-over loss to Australia in a tri-series limited-overs cricket international.

HT Image

International Cricket Council Match Referee Clive Lloyd announced on Friday that he'd fined the Indian team 15 per cent of its match fee and Ganguly a total of 80 per cent of his earnings for failing to get through the overs in the allotted time the previous night. Lloyd calculated that the Indian team finished three overs short of the required rate in the rain-shortened match, the ICC said in a statement Friday.

Under international cricket rules, players are fined five per cent of their match fee for each of the first five overs that the side is behind the bowling rate. The captain is fined 10 percent of his fee for each late over.

Because the Indians were more than two overs behind the rate, Ganguly also received an automatic charge of "conduct contrary to the spirit of the game" on the basis of time wasting and fined another 50 percent of his match payment.

Match payments vary from nation to nation.

India batted first in Sydney on Thursday and posted 296 for four in 50 overs. After a break for rain, Australia's target was revised to 225 in 34 overs. Brett Lee scored the winning runs with a ball to spare.