New Zealand batsman, Scott Styris and the Australian fast bowler, Mitchell Johnson were fined by the match referee after their heated clash during the victory of the first ODI by New Zealand in Napier on Wednesday. The two men were fined for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct with Johnson hitting 60 % of his match fee and Styris docked with 15% fine.
This incident occurred in the 46th over of New Zealand’s chase, with a verbal exchange of words between the two players. Johnson approached Styris and made what the umpires felt was sort of deliberate and also unnecessary physical contact with his opponent. This incident happened when Scott struck Mitchell for two boundaries. The audience saw these two players bumping shoulders and appearing to clash heads too.
Johnson was charged with a level two offence and was pleaded guilty to avoid any full hearing. On the other hand, Styris avoided a full hearing and got charged with a level one offence. The umpires felt that Styris contributed to the verbal exchange which preceded the physical contact and his actions too contravened the clause of 2.1.8 that covers any such action which are contrary to the spirit of cricket or bring the game into any disrespect.
Asked upon his behavior and the overall incident, Styris replied that Johnson may have head butted him, but it was a friendly one. He was simply trying to get into his head to get him out and Styris was trying to win the battle over him. Both the players were separated by Brad Haddin, the Australian wicketkeeper along with the captain, Ricky Ponting, who was keen to keep the focus on the game. Ponting was of the view that he had seen the incident but was unsure about how it all got started in the first place.