Former India opener Virender Sehwag has highlighted BCCI’s double standards as far as punishing players in the Indian Premier League (IPL) is concerned

Sehwag's observation came after LSG spinner Digvesh Rathi was handed a one-match ban for his heated altercation with SRH opener Abhishek Sharma last week. Abhishek was also slapped with a fine and demerit points.

Sehwag felt Digvesh's ban was harsh, as he pointed out past instances in the IPL involving big names like MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, but the BCCI never suspended them.

"I thought that the ban was a bit harsh. The boy is playing in his first year in the IPL. MS Dhoni had barged into the ground, he was not banned then. Virat Kohli has spoken to umpires in that tone, who knows how many times, he was also not banned. So, Digvesh Rathi could have been spared, because he is a young player, just coming into the scene, could have let that one go," Sehwag said while speaking on Cricbuzz.

During the PL 2019 season, Dhoni entered the ground in CSK's match against RR to argue with the on-field umpires over a controversial no-ball call. The CSK captain got away with a 50% fine for his offence.

On the other hand, Kohli, who has been involved in numerous on-field spats since the inception of IPL, was never suspended.

Sehwag, however, missed one key point regarding Digvesh Rathi’s suspension. It is worth noting here that the leg-spinner was not suspended for a match because of that one incident with Abhishek.

Rathi had already accumulated three demerit points for earlier Code of Conduct breaches, mainly due to his notebook celebrations. The on-field scuffle with Abhishek was Digvesh's third offence of the season, which took his total demerit points tally to five.

"This was his third Level 1 offence under Article 2.5 this season and hence, he has accumulated two Demerit Points, in addition to three Demerit Points he had accumulated earlier - One Demerit Point against Punjab Kings on April 01, 2025 and two Demerit Points against Mumbai Indians on April 04, 2025. As he now has Five Demerit Points this season - which result in a one-game suspension - Digvesh will now be suspended for LSG’s next game - against Gujarat Titans on May 22, 2025 in Ahmedabad," IPL had said in a statement.

Coming Dhoni and Kohli, their demerit points tally never reached five in a season for the BCCI to impose a suspension on them.