The dismissal was a good one. What happened in the eight seconds afterwards is what everybody has spent two days talking about.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Asitha Fernando have both been fined 25 per cent of their match fees and handed one demerit point each by the International Cricket Council, following their confrontation on the opening day of the second Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
Neither will be suspended. Neither had a previous offence on record in the past twenty-four months, which is the only reason this ended with a fine rather than something heavier.
What actually happened
It came in the seventeenth over of India’s innings. Fernando produced a delivery that darted back into the left-hander and knocked Jaiswal over for 45 from 53 balls, ending an innings that had been the most fluent of the morning.
As Jaiswal began to walk, something was said. He turned back. The two men closed on each other, exchanged words, and then Fernando moved his head forward. Jaiswal leaned in to meet it. The pair made head-to-head contact before Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva and several other players stepped between them.
It was over almost as soon as it started, but it was unmistakably physical, and that is precisely the distinction the ICC’s code of conduct is built around.
The charge and the ruling
Both players were found to have breached Article 2.12 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel.
The article covers “inappropriate physical contact with a Player, Player Support Personnel, Umpire, Match Referee or any other person, including a spectator during an International Match.” It is a Level 1 offence, which is the lowest tier, and it carries a maximum penalty of fifty per cent of a match fee and two demerit points.
The sanctions were proposed by Andy Pycroft of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees. Both players admitted the offence and accepted the penalty, which removed the need for a formal hearing.
The demerit points remain on their records for two years. Four points inside that window triggers a suspension, so neither man is anywhere near a ban, but both are now carrying something they were not carrying on Saturday.
Jaiswal answers back
The more interesting story arrived off the field, and it arrived because Jaiswal decided not to let it pass.
Cricbuzz posted a video on Instagram asking whether Jaiswal had crossed the line. Harsha Bhogle, in that video, suggested the batter should simply have walked away after his dismissal. It was a fairly mild observation from one of the game’s most measured voices.
Jaiswal replied in the comments, publicly, before going out to bat on day two.
“If you don’t know what he said, then please don’t make your judgment,” he wrote. “If anyone crosses the line, we need to let them know this: India will fight and reply.”
That is not a player quietly accepting a fine. It is a twenty-something opener drawing a line about what he believes he is entitled to respond to, and doing it in public against a commentator most Indian cricketers would not choose to argue with.
The view from the dressing room
India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak had addressed the incident at the end of day one, and his answer was notably more careful than his player’s.
“I think they must have said something to him, and it might have happened in the heat of the moment,” Kotak said. “Obviously, Jaiswal, I don’t think he should have been so close to Fernando, but that happens when you are in the heat of the moment.”
That is about as close to a rebuke as a coach will offer in public while a match is still going on. The sympathy is there, but so is the correction, and the correction is specifically about the physical proximity rather than the words.
The context nobody is mentioning
This is a series being played in a region where cricketing relations have been unusually strained for eighteen months, and the temperature around India’s fixtures has been high all year.
None of that excuses a head-to-head contact, and none of it is Jaiswal’s or Fernando’s making. But it is worth noting that Sri Lanka are a side that has just been overtaken in the ICC Test rankings by Bangladesh, playing at home, one down in a two-match series against a side ranked fourth in the world. Fernando has bowled beautifully across both innings of this match and finished the first innings with 4 for 106 having created chances all day.
Frustration in that situation is not difficult to understand. Neither is a young batter who has been dismissed cheaply reacting to a send-off. Understanding both does not make either of them right.
What comes next
Nothing further, disciplinarily. The matter is closed, the fines are paid, and both men were on the field again on day two as though little had happened.
Jaiswal will want the runs more than the argument. He has 45 from this match and a series in which India have been carried by Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel rather than their openers. India declared on 503 for 9 on the second evening and reduced Sri Lanka to 8 for 2 by the close, which suggests the match itself will not stay close enough for tempers to flare again.
The demerit point, though, follows him for two years. The next one will be considerably more expensive.