Ranji Trophy 2019-20: Murali Vijay fined 10% of match fee for dissent, calls grow louder for use of technology

Reporting from Dindigul, December 9: India and Tamil Nadu opener Murali Vijay was fined 10% of his match fee for expressing dissent over an on-field decision by the umpires on Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy match between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka at the NPR College Grounds, Dindigul, on Monday.

Umpires Nitin Pandit and Anil Dandekar were at the centre of it with quite a few Tamil Nadu players expressing dissatisfaction, not vocally but rather visibly with their body language, over some of the decisions made on the field on an action-packed day one.

There were a few appeals that saw a majority of the TN team in the middle. Bowler R Ashwin, keeper N Jagadeesan, M Vijay from slip, short-leg fielder and substitute fielder K Mukunth...almost everyone were up.

Two balls before tea in the 70th over of the day, Ashwin and Co were at their vociferous best for a caught behind appeal against batsman Pavan Deshpande and the appeal was turned down by straight umpire Pandit. A visibly disappointed Ashwin and the rest of his teammates surrounded the pitch.

While the umpire from the bowling end, Pandit, walked up to the ace India off-spinner Ashwin and had a chat with him, the square leg umpire Dandekar, holding Vijay’s hand, was trying to calm down the India opening batsman. There was no conclusive evidence on whether the batsman had edged the ball or not.

The TN team management later confirmed that Vijay has been fined 10% of his match fee. At the end of the day’s play, Tamil Nadu coach D Vasu termed that these kind of incidents are “part and parcel” of the game. “Probably, in the heat of the moment, players would have reacted. But I think you also have to be mindful of the fact that today cricket is played very differently and everybody is being watched. Bad decisions and good decisions are part of the game. We have to take it in our stride and move on,” said Vasu and added: “I cannot comment on these things (if there was an edge or not). It’s not appropriate.”

While umpires use technology for line decisions in domestic cricket, Vasu said that they would love to have more intervention of technology in domestic cricket.

“When tight games happen, two strong teams are competing, here and there...small things can make a huge difference. If technology is available and money is available, why not (use more technology)? For now, we use technology for line decisions in domestic cricket but whatever they can include with technology and if it’s possible we will be the happiest people to accept."

“Anything new and anything that’s going to help the umpires as well the players, we will be happy because there is so much at stake these days for the players with regards to their careers,” said the TN coach.

There was some action post-tea as well as a couple of vociferous appeals were turned down by the umpires and eventually Ashwin and Tamil Nadu received one decision in their favour with Deshpande edging one to keeper Jagadeesan.

Karnataka, who opted to bat first, ended the day at 259/6 with Devdutt Padikkal (78) and Pavan Deshpande (65) being the top performers for the visitors. For the hosts, debutant left-arm spinner M Siddharth claimed two wickets for 33 runs, while Ashwin, K Vignesh and B Aparajith picked up a wicket each.