Gambhir gets suspended ban for coach spat

Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir was handed a four-match suspended ban from first-class cricket for his altercation with coach KP Bhaskar in March this year. A three-member independent inquiry committee, set up by Justice Vikramjit Sen, comprising Madan Lal, Rajendra Rathore and Soni Singh, found Gambhir guilty of "seriously inappropriate behaviour".

The committee, however, suspended the punishment for a two-year period, ending on March 19, 2019, contingent on Gambhir accepting the ruling.

During this year's Vijay Hazare Trophy, Gambhir had criticised Bhaskar of creating an insecure environment for youngsters. Subsequently, the DDCA set up a committee to investigate the argument.

"The Committee Members agree that considering the above facts and circumstances that have come to light, Mr Gambhir's actions towards Mr Pillai with premeditated intent to humiliate the coach were highly inappropriate and of serious nature," Sen said in a statement.

"The position of a coach among the team members is of high respect and dignity. It is a serious disgrace to a coach to be humiliated in front of team members by one of the team members even though if it is a senior player.

"The actions of Mr Gambhir, however well intended, cannot be said to be in the interest of the team, or its performance or the game as it was done on the very last day of the season and therefore could not have been any corrective effect," the statement said.

Among other decisions, the committee also recommended the creation of a grievance-redressal system for players and framing of disciplinary-action rules that would inform them of the consequences of a transgression.

"It is also recommended that disciplinary action rules and mechanism of imposing penalty are required to be formulated to inculcate discipline in the team members and for predictability and deterrence, where players know that an act of indiscipline would have serious repercussions and are therefore deterred from committing them," Sen said.