LSG player accused of ‘invading batter’s space’, Gavaskar questions BCCI: ‘The first time he did it was when…’

There’s been no shortage of fines in the ongoing IPL 2025, with as many as eight players getting reprimanded. The offences range from slow over-rates to breaching the IPL code of conduct. While five captains – Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson have all paid the price for being behind the number of overs bowled, others have been pulled up for disciplinary issues. However, one player who has been fined already on more than one occasion is Lucknow Super Giants youngster Digvesh Singh Rathi. His notebook-style celebration has been punished by the BCCI twice, but the leg-spinner simply refuses to learn.

Rathi was fined 25 percent of his match fee and picked up a demerit point after he got right up Punjab Kings batter Priyansh Arya’s face when celebrating the wicket. Later, when he did it again – this time against Naman Dhir of Mumbai Indians – Rathi copped a 50 percent match fee as a second fine. But while the first offence was on expected lines, legendary former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar questioned BCCI over the second offence.

“The Lucknow team’s Digvesh Rathi has been fined a couple of times and lost two demerit points for the celebrations of taking a wicket with the notebook celebration. The first time he did that was when he got the wicket of his Delhi teammate Priyansh Arya. He was rightly fined then because he ran right up to the batter who was leaving back for the dug out and did the notebook celebration standing bang next to him,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day.

“That was not only invading the batter’s space but also giving him a send-off which is why he lost 25 per cent of his match fees. However, the next time he did that he was nowhere near the batter, and so it was a surprise that he was fined then. He wasn’t in the batter’s space or face and so shouldn’t have been fined.”

Did Digvesh Rathi tone down?

The second punishment toned Rathi down – albeit just a little. While he did not do away with his notebook entirely, the leg-spinner brought out a modified version of the same – writing on the grass. Thankfully for LSG and Rathi, he dodged a bullet from the BCCI, with the IPL governing council and the board deciding to ignore it.

The long-haired Rathi has taken eight wickets from 6 matches, with a best of 2/30 against PBKS. He has picked at least one wicket every match.