Virat Kohli may be penalized and his Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore may lose some fair play points after his reported outburst in the match referee's room following the unspotted no-ball that Lasith Malinga bowled in the final ball of RCB's run-chase against Mumbai Indians on March 28.
It has come to light that an angry Kohli barged into the match referee's room and used abusive language.
"While Kohli expressed his displeasure even at the presentation ceremony, as per eyewitnesses, the RCB captain barged inside the match referee's room where he used abusive language and shouted expletives. Kohli is also said to have told the referee that he doesn't care if he is penalised for violating the code of conduct," Times Now reported.
The Indian captain is well known for his fiery attitude on the cricket field and sounded livid while talking about the incident which contributed to his team's defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians on Thursday. RCB was asked to chase 188 runs to win their second match of 2019 IPL season but fell short of the mark as they required 7 runs to win off the final ball of their innings.
But as the match finished, the giant screens inside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium showed Lasith Malinga, who was bowling the final over of the innings, clearly overstepping. But umpire S Ravi failed to spot the obvious error committed by the Sri Lankan fast bowler and RCB lost the game. Had he called the no-ball, the batsman would have got a free hit to win the game of the last ball.
Talking about the incident post-match, captain Kohli said that it was ridiculous of the umpire to make such errors in the IPL. He said that the umpires should have kept their eyes open as they are not officiating a club cricket match.
"We are playing at the IPL level and we're not playing club cricket. That was a ridiculous call at the last ball. The umpires should have had their eyes open. It was a no-ball by an inch. It would have been a completely different game altogether. If it is a game of margins, I don't know what is happening. They (umpires) should have been more sharp and careful out there," said Kohli.
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma also spoke about the incident saying that these kinds of mistakes do not show the game in good light. "Honestly, I just got to know after crossing the rope that it was a no-ball. These kind of mistakes are not good for the game," Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
A report on India TV quotes a Star official as saying that the umpire missed the no-ball because he was not looking at Malinga and was instead focussed on the batsman by the time the Sri Lankan got into his delivery stride.
"Having gone through the slow-motion replay of the match feed, I can tell you for certain that Ravi wasn't even looking at the front foot of the bowler. He was already looking at the batsman," the official said.
It seems likely that there will be further developments regarding Kohli's reported behaviour but it remains to be seen how he is reprimanded for the same.
