The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has suspended Maharashtra's Ankit Bawne for one match in Ranji Trophy. The suspension came after Bawne's refusal to walk out after being given out during his side's match against Services on November 6-9, 2024. As a result, Bawne didn't feature in Maharashtra's fixture against Baroda which started Thursday (Jan 23).
Why Bawne didn't review the umpire's decision
Bawne, who was acting as stand-in captain in place of Ruturaj Gaikwad, was batting on 73 when Services' Shubham Rohilla took a slip catch off spinner Amit Shukla. Bawne was given out despite there being some evidence that the ball had bounced before being caught.
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As the match was only a livestream and not televised, Bawne couldn't review the decision. The play was suspended for 15 minutes because of the incident and only started after intervention by match referee Amit Sharma and Maharashtra coach Sulakshan Kulkarni.
After the decision, Maharashtra coach Kulkarni called out the umpiring level in domestic cricket and had said: "Players are subject to fines and reprimand, what about proper assessment of umpires. Why do the same erring umpires continue to officiate and play spoilsport? When there are blunders of this nature, the anger is justified."
Who is Ankit Bawne?
The 32-year-old middle-order batter made his debut for Maharashtra in 2007 and has played 122 First Class matches so far. In those matches, Bawne has scored 8,241 runs at an average of 51 with 24 hundreds and 42 fifties. His highest in First Class cricket is 258 not out.
In List A, Bawne has played 126 matches and scored 4,650 runs at a healthy average of 48 with 15 hundreds and 20 fifties. His highest score in List A cricket is 184 not out. Bawne has also hit 875 runs in 42 T20s at a strike rate of 131.57 with seven fifties to his name.