Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag was punished by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday for being caught vaping on camera during the IPL 2026 game against the Punjab Kings in Mullanpur earlier this week. Parag was fined 25 per cent of his match fee for bringing the game into “disrepute” and was handed one demerit point for breaching Level 1 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials. However, the BCCI is now mulling stringent action against the Rajasthan Royals as well.
In the same IPL statement released on Thursday, pertaining to the action taken on Parag, it was mentioned towards the end that the Indian board is not quite pleased with the Rajasthan Royals team, its officials, and players, and is therefore exploring options to take action to ensure that the “reputation of the IPL remains intact.”
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The statement read: “The BCCI is also exploring other options to initiate proceedings for stringent action against the erring team, its officials and player/s to ensure that the reputation of IPL remains intact.”
The same was confirmed by BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, who told PTI, “As it is written clearly in the statement, we are exploring what action to take on the team. It is not decided yet.”
Parag’s action was caught by one of the broadcast cameras and quickly went viral on social media, after which he was heavily criticised.
The PTI report stated that the on-field umpires, Tanmay Srivastava and Nitin Menon, did not report the incident to the match referee immediately after the game, but did so only after they were made aware of the clip. After reviewing visual evidence of the incident, Parag was found guilty of a Code of Conduct breach as per IPL guidelines.
Since it was a Level 1 offence, no hearing was required.
The infringement on Parag’s part came just days after Rajasthan team manager Romi Bhinder was seen using his mobile phone in the dugout during the IPL 2026 game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 10 in Guwahati. He was fined INR 1 lakh for the offence. Bhinder had told the IPL’s Anti-Corruption Unit that the breach was inadvertent and offered an unconditional apology.