CHENNAI: Headbutting is relatively unknown in cricket. An act immortalised by one of the geniuses of world football — Zinedine Zidane — found its way on to the cricket ground in faraway Hubballi.
Karnataka's batter KV Aneesh was born in 2001, the same year when domestic veteran Paras Dogra made his first-class debut. Almost 25 years later, the two crossed paths at the grandest stage of the domestic cricket — Ranji Trophy final — with the 41-year-old Dogra head-butting Aneesh on Day 2 in Hubballi with his team, Jammu and Kashmir posting 527/6 in 156 overs.
The incident happened during the 101st over of the innings when Dogra awkwardly fended off a rising delivery from India pacer Prasidh Krishna. Soon after it, he rushed towards Aneesh, who was stationed in as a close in fielder and headbutted him though gently. Aneesh was also wearing a helmet. Karnataka's experienced batter Mayank Agarwal also got involved by engaging into an argument with Dogra with their captain Devdutt Padikkal deciding to talk to the umpires. Apparently, Aneesh was commenting on the veteran's batting despite him scoring more than 10000 runs in his career. "Can't hold the bat, how did he score 10000 runs?" was what he apparently told Dogra, who got furious.
The J&K skipper tried to downplay the incident saying it wasn't a big thing after the day's play while the on-field drama brought back memories of the past to team's head coach Ajay Sharma. "It was just in the little heat of the moment. Not a big thing. Yeah, it is all settled now. That's (a hot day) a different thing and it was momentary. We started talking and chatting after that so it's all well," Dogra told reporters when asked about the incident.
Former India all-rounder Sharma witnessed the scuffle from the sidelines and could not help but revisit a past incident when West Zone pacer Rashid Patel chased North Zone opener Raman Lamba with a stump in his hand following an on-field altercation during the 1990-91 Duleep Trophy final in Jamshedpur.
"As soon as I saw that I relayed the message to the batters to avoid any type of physical contact as it doesn't look good and could even lead to bigger things like what happened during that Duleep Trophy final," Sharma told this daily. He was representing North Zone which was led by former India captain Kapil Dev. They won the match by virtue of the first innings lead.
Dogra, who is playing 153rd first-class match of his career with more than 10,000 runs under his belt, scored 70 as the eight-time champions were forced to stay on the field for the second consecutive day till bad light led umpires to stop the play.
Fine, demerit point & suspension
As per Article 2.12 of the BCCI's Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials, 2025, inappropriate physical contact with a Player, Team Official, Umpire, Match Referee or any other person (including a spectator) during a Match could invite fine or both fine and demerit point depending upon the level of offence as decided by the match referee. Level 1 offence means warning and/or the imposition of a fine up to 50 per cent of the match fee with maximum 2 demerit points. Level 2 offence means imposition of a fine between 50-100 per cent with 3 or 4 demerit points. The 4 demerit point also means suspension of one match.