Indian U-19 captain Vijay Zol suspended for abuse

Vijay Zol with England captain Will Rhodes before the match

Indian Under-19 captain Vijay Zol has been suspended for a match after being guilty of using offensive language towards the England batsmen in the defending champions’ Under-19 World Cup 2014 quarter-finals loss, while off-spinner Aamir Gani has been let off with a reprimand.

The Indian U-19 team had set a target of 222 runs for England to chase in the 50 overs, with Zol, Deepak Hooda and Sarfaraz Khan all making important contributions after seeing their team being reduced to 24-4 in 8.1 overs. Despite Kuldeep Yadav’s heroics with the ball, England won the tie in 49.1 overs with 3 wickets in hand.

A press release from the International Cricket Council read:

“India’s U19 captain Vijay Zol has been suspended for one match and off-spinner Aamir Gani has been reprimanded after being found guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2014 quarter-final against England at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.

Zol was found to have breached Article 2.2.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to “using language or gesture(s) that is seriously obsence, seriously offensive or of a seriously insulting nature to another Player, Player Support Personnel, Umpire, Match Referee or any other third person during an International Match”, while Gani was found to have breached Article 2.1.4 of the Code, which relates to “using language or a gesture that is obsence, offensive or insulting during an International Match.”

Graeme La Brooy of the ICC Regional Referees Panel imposed the sanctions after both the players pleaded to the guilty to the offences and accepted the proposed sanctions.

One suspension point in the Code equates to a suspension from the next match in which the player is most likely to participate in. As such, Zol will miss Monday’s play/off match against Sri Lanka at ICC Academy 1.

The incident involving Zol happened in the 30th over when the captain caught England’s Ben Duckett at short mid-wicket off Kuldeep Yadav and then used seriously offensive language at the batsman, while in a separate incident Gani used obscene language after having England’s Ed Barnard caught by Sanju Samson in the 26th over. Both the incidents were captured on television.

The charges were laid by on-field umpires Ranmore Martinesz and Chris Gaffaney, as well as third umpire Simon Fry.”