MS Dhoni fined for inappropriate public comment

MS Dhoni, the captain of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) was fined 10 percent of his match fees by the match referee Ranjan Madugalle. The incident took place after the Indian Premier League (IPL) Qualifier 1 match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and  CSK at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday. Dhoni, the captain was fined for “inappropriate public comment” in relation to an umpire’s decision during the CSK innings. READ: Mumbai Indians qualify for IPL 2015 final with 25-run victory over Chennai Super Kings in Qualifier 1

A media release in iplt20.com confirmed this news. It added, “Mr. Dhoni admitted the level 1 offence [Article 2.1.7 of the IPL Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials] and accepted the sanction.” The incident happened, when in the post match interview to official broadcaster, Sony, Dhoni was asked to explain their performance in that Qualifier match, which CSK lost by 25 runs. READ: IPL 2015 Playoffs: Complete schedule, venues, match timings

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Dhoni said, “We were soft on our batting. It’s always difficult to chase 180+. We lost momentum in the middle, and not to forget Smith got a horrible decision. We need to lift our game and it would have been better to take a wicket by the sixth over but I was quite happy with our bowling.” The CSK skipper referred the Dwayne Smith LBW decision by Richard Illingworth and termed it as a ‘Horrible Decision’.

Smith was adjudged LBW after being struck on the pads off a full-toss from Lasith Malinga in the first over. Replays showed that ball would have gone down the leg side by some margin. But according to IPL rules, a player cannot criticise umpire’s decision publicly. READ: Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings, Qualifier 1, Highlights