Southampton: Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been let off with just a 50 per cent match-fee fine after referee David Boon found the player not guilty of the original level 2 offence, which involved his on-field incident with England pacer James Anderson.
The incident occurred during the lunch break of the second day's play at Nottingham during which, Indians claim that Anderson had allegedly “abused” and “pushed” Jadeja as the players were making their way into the dressing rooms.
The England team management, which had initially described it as a “minor” incident, later filed a countercharge against Jadeja.
Boon held a hearing in Southampton on Thursday evening, which was attended by both the players, their legal counsels, witnesses as well as BCCI's MV Sridhar, Phil Neale and Paul Downton of the ECB, and the ICC's Ethics & Regulatory Lawyer.
In the meeting that lasted for over two hours, former Australia batsman Boon said that the charges on Jadeja only found him guilty to ‘conduct contrary to the spirit of the game'.
Commenting on his decision, Mr Boon said: “Under Article 6.1 of the Code, I had to be comfortably satisfied that the offence had occurred in order to find Jadeja guilty of an offence under Article 2.2.11.
“While I was in no doubt that confrontation did occur, and that such conduct was not in the spirit of the game and should not have taken place, I was not comfortably satisfied that this was a level 2 offence. Therefore, in exercising my discretion under Article 7.6.5 of the Code and having heard all the evidence, I was comfortably satisfied that Jadeja had committed a level 1 offence under Article 2.1.8 of the Code.”
The hearing for Anderson, who has been charged with a level 3 offence, has been fixed on August 1.
