Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Sourav Ganguly has been fined US $40,000, and his teammates US $10,000 each, for maintaining a slow over-rate during the Indian Premier League match against the Delhi Daredevils in Kolkata on Wednesday.
"The Indian Premier League today (Thursday) advised that Kolkata Knight Riders have been fined for maintaining a slow over-rate during last night's DLF IPL match against Delhi Daredevils in Kolkata," read a statement from the IPL.
At the end of the match, Kolkata, who won by 14 runs, were assessed to be two overs behind the required rate after allowances were taken into consideration.
"Since it was Kolkata's second offence of the season, under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over rate offences, captain Sourav Ganguly was fined USD 40,000 and each player in the team USD 10,000," the statement added.
Committing the same offence a third time could result in Ganguly being banned for a match.
Meanwhile, temperamental Kings XI Punjab pacer S Sreesanth was also fined, for breach of the Code of Conduct, and fined 20 per cent of his match fee (US $9,000) for clapping at the umpire when he was no-balled twice during the match against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur.
"Kings XI Punjab's S Sreesanth has been fined for breaching the DLF Indian Premier League's (IPL) Code of Conduct during his team's match against the Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur," read a statement from the IPL.
Sreesanth pleaded guilty to the Level 1 offence (Article 2.1.3), which relates to "showing dissent at an umpire's decision".
The incident took place in the third over of Rajasthan Royals' innings when he was twice no-balled. Infuriated with the umpire's decision, the bowler first clapped at opposing batsman Michael Lumb and then the umpires.
Immediately, teammate Yuvraj Singh ran up to him and had a word with the Kerala pacer.
"As a result, Match Referee Srinivas Venkataraghavan fined Sreesanth 20 per cent (US $9,000) of his match fee," the statement added.
Rajasthan went on to beat Punjab by nine wickets.
It may be recalled that Sreesanth was given a "final warning" by the Board of Control for Cricket in India in October to mend his on-field behaviour.
During the first edition of the Indian Premier League, Sreesanth wept on the field after being slapped by Harbhajan Singh following an altercation.
The issue escalated into a big controversy and although Sreesanth was let off with a warning, Harbhajan was suspended from the rest of the tournament.
