Dhoni banned for two ODIs, Gambhir to lead

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: December 19, 2009

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Nagpur: Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been banned for two ODIs for India’s slow over rate in the second ODI at Nagpur which Sri Lanka won by three wickets. The ban is effective with immediate effect which rules Dhoni out of the next two games in Cuttack and Kolkata, with Gautam Gambhir most likely to be named stand-in captain for the two games.

The second one-dayer, which went down to the wire, ended almost 45 minutes after the scheduled finish time because of frequent discussions between the Indian players during the closing stages of Sri Lanka’s chase, prompting the International Cricket Council to impose the ban on the Indian captain.

Dhoni has already been informed of the ban verbally, BCCI vice president Rajiv Shukla confirmed, while a formal announcement from the ICC is expected soon.

The ban comes as a huge setback for the Indians with the series evenly poised at 1-1, with the Sri Lankans coming back strongly to win the second ODI after India had won the first ODI at Rajkot by three runs.

The decision to ban Dhoni was taken by match referee Jeff Crowe of New Zealand. Earlier, Sri Lanka were also penalised for slow over rate after the second T20 game at Mohali, with skipper Kumar Sangakkara being fined 40% of his match fees while the rest of team was fined 20% of their match fees. Crowe had then said that Sangakkara has just escaped a bigger penalty.

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