IND vs AUS: BCCI lodges complaint with ICC against Smith, Handscomb

The Indian Cricket Board on Thursday lodged an official complaint with International Cricket Council (ICC) against Australian captain Steve Smith and Peter Handscomb for seeking dressing room help on a DRS call.

It was an interesting move by the BCCI after ICC issued a statement making it clear that no further action will be taken against either India skipper Virat Kohli or Smith.

It has been learnt that BCCI has emailed the documents along with video footage of the incident to the ICC, pressing Level 2 charges under the global body’s Code of Conduct.

“Yes, the BCCI today officially lodged a complaint with the ICC against Smith and Handscomb. They have submitted the video footage of the incident where Handscomb is insisting Smith to go up for a review and umpire Nigel Llong is seen intervening,” a top source told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

“BCCI is well within their rights to lay official charge as a Level 2 charge needs to be pressed within 48 hours of the completion of the match,” the source added.

It was learnt that the BCCI has pressed charges for “violating spirit of cricket and bringing the game to disrepute”.

When a BCCI source was asked whether ICC will look into the matter, he said: “The rule states that CEO of member board needs to lay the charges within 48 hours in case of Level 2.  That’s exactly what has been done. Also one should know that Peter Handscomb, on his official twitter handle, has admitted to his guilt. Also why didn’t the ICC wait for 48 hours to end?”

It was learnt that BCCI has been irked by Cricket Australia’s strong statement defending Smith.

A feeling within the BCCI is that while it is perfectly okay to defend their captain, the tenor of the statement seemed to demean Kohli, which has not gone down well with the home team.

The Indian team management had expected that the match referee Chris Broad would summon Smith at the end of the game and was left perplexed following inaction on part of Broad.

Broad’s statement to an Australian media publication was also something that didn’t go unnoticed with the BCCI as match referees are not supposed to air their views in the media.

The ICC will now be in a tricky situation as the on-field umpires for the second Test till yesterday had not submitted any official complaint.