(Reuters) – England have been fined their entire match fees and docked five World Test Championship points for maintaining a slow rate of overs during their nine-wicket defeat by Australia in the first Ashes test, cricket’s world governing body said on Saturday.
Joe Root’s side were ruled to be five overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration, with match referee David Boon imposing the sanction.
Players are fined 20% of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, while the team is penalised one point for each over short.
The ICC added that Australian batter Travis Head was fined 15% of his match fee for using bad language in the 77th over of their first innings on Thursday, when he was beaten by a ball from England all-rounder Ben Stokes.
One demerit point was also added to Head’s disciplinary record after his first offence in a 24-month period.
When a player attains four or more demerit points in a two-year period, they are converted into suspension points that could bring a ban.
Nathan Lyon captured a long-awaited 400th test victim and spun Australia to an emphatic nine-wicket victory in the test, with England losing eight wickets on day four in Brisbane.
The second of the five tests will run from Dec. 16 to 20 in Adelaide.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
