Afghan captain Rachid Khan has been charged with a Level 1 violation of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Code of Conduct for his actions during their victory over Bangladesh in the Super Eight of the T20 World Cup 2024. The victory ensured Afghanistan secured a place in the T20 World Cup semi-finals for the first time.
“Level 1 offenses carry a minimum sanction of an official warning, a maximum penalty of 50% of the player’s match fee amount and one or two demerit points,” the ICC said in its statement. Rashid was punished for throwing his bat to the ground after his partner Karim Janat denied a second run off the second ball of the last over of their innings.
“Rashid breached Article 2.9 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to throwing a ball (or any other item of cricket equipment) at or near a player in an inappropriate and/or dangerous manner during an international match,” in addition to this, a demerit point was added to Rashid’s disciplinary record, for whom it was the first. offense over a period of 24 months,” the ICC said.
Here is a video of the incident:
A dramatic night for Afghanistan
There were calls for a sanction against Rashid’s teammate Gulbadin Naib for allegedly faking a hamstring injury to delay the match during Bangladesh’s chase. Bangladesh were two points behind by DLS at the time, with rain imminent. Although covers had to be put in place while Naib received treatment, the break lasted only a few minutes and no overs were lost in the match.
Naib was one of the stars of the night for Afghanistan when they beat Australia in their previous Super Eight match, which ultimately led to them qualifying for the semi-finals. Afghanistan could only post a score of 148/6 batting first at Arnos Vale. Naib was his team’s leading wicket-taker then, recording figures of 4/20 as Australia were bowled out for 127 and Afghanistan won by 21 runs. Australia then lost to India by 24 runs in their final Super Eight match, which left them on the brink of a knockout, forcing Bangladesh to beat Afghanistan later in the day.