Warne's $50,000 fine not on Royals mind

It is not clear as to who will pay the sum of a $50,000 imposed on Shane Warne by the Board of Control for Cricket in India over his recent bust-up with Rajasthan Cricket Association secretary Sanjay Dixit.

"Honestly, we have not discussed it yet; not given a thought to this. It is not important whether Warne would pay the fine or our team," Sean Morris, Rajasthan Royals' CEO said. "We are focusing only on the game (against Mumbai Indians)," he added, before yesterday's game at the Wankhede Stadium.

According to cricket statisticians, the fine of US $50, 000 is the highest ever to be slapped on a cricketer for misconduct.

"I don't know of any higher fine imposed on a cricketers for misconduct," said Indian statistician Sudhir Vaidya.
Mohandas Menon, another prominent stats man, informed, "recently on two occasions, Sachin Tendulkar has been fined USD 20,000 for slow overrate in IPL 2011, but that was not for any misconduct."

"I have not been able to find a higher individual fine, so I have to say 'not to my knowledge', " statistician Dave Wilson said from USA.

However, Warne's fine does not match Harbhajan Singh's loss when the Indian spinner slapped S Sreesanth after the Mumbai Indians vs Kings XI Punjab Indian Premier League game in Mohali, 2008.

Harbhajan lost USD 900,000 after being banned for the remainder of the IPL's first edition.

Warne's brother, Jason, who also looks after his charity work was non-committal about the fine. "I have not managed him for four years now and I do not want to make any comment," Jason said from Melbourne yesterday.