South African pacer Kagiso Rabada was cleared to play the remaining two Tests of the series against Australia after a judicial commissioner appointed by the International Cricket Council overturned his ban.
Rabada will thereby be available for selection for the third Test starting on Thursday. He was initially banned for two Tests by the ICC after accumulating more than eight demerit points over a two-year period. The pacer appeared to have shouldered Australia captain Steve Smith after dismissing him and sent off opener David Warner.
Rabada, however, appealed against the ban and the judicial commissioner, Michael Heron, agreed with his version of the story. Heron ruled that he was not “comfortably satisfied” that Rabada intended to make contact with Smith and therefore found him not guilty of the charge.
Heron did, however, find the pacer guilty of “conduct that is contrary to the spirit of the game”, fined him 25% of his match fee and gave him one demerit point as against three, which took his total down to seven.
After the verdict was announced, Twitter was divided with some pleased that the ICC’s “common sense” prevailed, while others thought the governing body acted under pressure.
Thankfully, there was some humour to balance it all out:
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