‘Don’t think the punishment was harsh enough’ - Ricky Ponting on Virat Kohli’s fine after shoulder bump with Sam Konstas

Senior India batter Virat Kohli bumped into Sam Konstas on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. The incident happened after the 10th over mark when Kohli was exchanging ends and his shoulder barged with debutant Konstas at the non-striker’s end. It infuriated the 19-year-old as he confronted Kohli, who wasn’t shy about giving it back before Usman Khawaja and umpire Michael Gough separated them.

Meanwhile, former cricketer Ricky Ponting was extremely unhappy with Kohli’s gesture and called for a harsh punishment on commentary. He noted that Konstas had nowhere to move as he looked at the India international really late and eventually blamed Kohli for the physical altercation. The former India captain accepted his fault after the end of the day’s play as the 36-year-old was fined 20% of his match fee and was handed one demerit point.

Ponting wasn’t happy with the nature of the punishment as he believed that it wasn’t ‘harsh enough’. He noted that it was probably the most-watched day of cricket and added that he isn’t aware of the enormity of the incident but believes Kohli was let go off with an easy punishment due to his seniority.

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“Personally, I don't think it [the punishment] was harsh enough. I know there are precedents [where similar infringements have incurred similar-sized penalties] – they've generally been between a 15 and 25 per cent fine but let's have a think about the enormity of yesterday. It's probably the most-watched day of cricket all year all around the world,” Ponting said on 7 Cricket.

“Imagine if that happens in a grade game on the weekend now, what's going to happen there? I think people are going to think that that's almost acceptable now. And unfortunately for someone like Virat, as we got told as players and as senior players, sometimes it's [the scale of punishment] just different for some people. He's a role model, he's somebody the cricketing world looks up to, so I personally don't think that the fine was harsh enough,” the 50-year-old added.