LONDON: England captain Alastair Cook (pictured) has been fined 20 percent of his match fee for a slow over-rate during the drawn first test with Sri Lanka at Lord’s, the International Cricket Council announced yesterday.
His team-mates were fined 10 per cent after England were found to be one over short of its target.
“Andy Pycroft of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees imposed the fines after the side was ruled to be one over short of its target when time allowances were taken into consideration,” the ICC said in a statement.
“In accordance with the regulations of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel (the Code) governing minor over-rate offences, players are fined 10 per cent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double that.” Play in the match, which ended in a dramatic draw on Monday when the visitors finished at 201-9 after losing six wickets in the final session, went beyond the 6pm official finishing time on each of the five days, with 17 overs lost in total.
At the post-match news conference Cook said the slow over-rate was not ideal, but it hard to manage with four fast bowlers in the side.
Meanwhile, the England captain is hoping to return to batting form. Cook saw England pile up 575 for nine declared in the first innings at Lord’s on the back of 23-year-old Joe Root’s unbeaten 200 not out and then be bailed out second time around by a maiden Test century from Gary Ballance -- Root’s 24-year-old Yorkshire colleague.
Ballance’s hundred enabled Cook to declare before Monday’s final day and set Sri Lanka 390 to win.
The 29-year-old left-handed opener accepted his own form was a concern. Scores of 17 and 28 at Lord’s meant it was now 22 innings since Cook compiled the last of his England record 25 hundreds -- 130 against New Zealand at Headingley in May last year.
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