Harmanpreet Kaur set to become first women’s cricketer with ICC disciplinary punishment

Harmanpreet Kaur is expected to be penalised four demerit points for her conduct in the third and final ODI against Bangladesh in Mirpur, which ended in a tie. While ICC are yet to officially hand out a punishment, Harmanpreet is in danger of becoming the first women’s cricketer to be found guilty of a Level 2 breach of ICC code of conduct, which deals with player behaviour.

After being dismissed at the slip region, Harmanpreet smashed the stumps with her bat and remonstrated with umpire Tanvir Ahmed. The umpire in turn made a gesture towards the crowd. Later, in the post-match ceremony, Harmanpreet called the standard of umpiring “pathetic.”

In a juvenile act after, she asked the umpires to join in for the photo-op as the teams shared the ODI series 1-1. The move allegedly lead to Bangladesh players walking off.

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As per media reports, match officials have recommended three demerit points for the equipment damage and one more for her comments on the umpire in the post-match presentation. The final decision rests with the ICC.

ICC rules dictate that when a player reaches four or more demerit points within a 24-month period, they are converted to suspension points. Anything in the region of four to seven demerit points equals to two suspension points. So, she could be banned for one Test or two ODIs or two T20Is, whatever comes first in the player’s schedule.

Since 2016, 29 women’s cricketers have been found guilty of breach of conduct. Apart from Harmanpreet, Veda Krishnamurthy is the other Indian to have been found guilty twice.

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Last time Harmanpreet Kaur erred with her discipline was during the semi-final of the 2017 ODI World Cup against Australia. She was involved in a mix-up with Deepti Sharma while running for her century milestone but finished it safely in the end. Instead of celebrating, Harmanpreet threw her helmet to the ground and verbally hit out at Deepti. She was then found guilty of a Level 1 offence.

Harmanpreet’s act of breaking the stumps is reminiscent of Bangladesh men’s cricketer Shakib Al Hasan doing the same in a Dhaka Premier League T20 match. He was suspended for three matches and fined approximately $5800.

In that instance, Shakib kicked the stumps after umpire Imran Parvez turned down his lbw appeal. An over later, he ripped out all three stumps and threw them on the ground after umpire Mahfuzur Rahman called for the covers as it started to rain.