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Cape Town - Proteas captain, Faf du Plessis's appeal against his International Cricket Council (ICC) fine for ball tampering has been dismissed.
Du Plessis was fined 100% of his match fee after the second Test against Australia in Hobart in November after after television footage showed him applying an artificial substance to the ball during the fourth day’s play.
He was also handed three demerit points by ICC Match Referee, Andy Pycroft.
Du Plessis appealed the decision and at a hearing in Dubai on Monday, it was decided that the original decision was appropriate and the appeal was dismissed.
“It is the duty of the ICC to ensure fair play on the cricket field. Although it was not picked up by the umpires at the time, when the incident came to our attention subsequently, we felt it was our responsibility to lay a charge in this case because the ICC can’t let such an obvious breach of this Law pass without taking any action.
“We are pleased that both the Match Referee and Mr Beloff QC have agreed with our interpretation of the Laws and hope that this serves as a deterrent to all players not to engage in this sort of unfair practice in the future.
“It goes without saying that we will be reviewing the outcome to determine if any additional guidelines are needed to provide further clarity to the players and umpires around this type of offence. However we are satisfied that the Law is clear and is implemented consistently,” said ICC Chief Executive David Richardson.
Du Plessis will captain the Proteas in the first Test again Sri Lanka in Port Elizabeth starting on December 26.
