Yorkshire excluded from Twenty20

10 July 2008

At a meeting of a panel of the Cricket Discipline Commission on July 10, 2008, Yorkshire admitted breach of Directives 1.1 and 1.2 of the ECB Directives by playing a non-registered and ineligible player Azeem Rafiq against Nottinghamshire.

Detailed submissions were heard from Yorkshire and the panel further invited comments from representatives of Nottinghamshire and Durham who were most directly affected by the situation.

The decision of the panel is that:

1) Yorkshire be excluded from this year’s Twenty20 Cup competition

2) Match and points awarded to Nottinghamshire

3) Yorkshire pay £1,000 in costs.

In coming to their decision the panel took the view that this was a serious breach of the regulations and could not be passed over as a clerical error.

In reaching its decision the panel accepted that there was no deliberate flouting of the regulations but all counties are aware of the need to ensure compliance with the regulations which are designed to ensure the smooth and fair running of the game of cricket.

The panel find that Yorkshire were aware, no later than early 2007, that there were questions as to the player’s immigration status and were, therefore, put on notice properly to check his eligibility.

This was not done even though on June 27, 2008 the player was making his debut.

The panel took the view that in the circumstances of the situation the ECB did all it reasonably could to ensure that the Twenty20 Cup match between Durham and Yorkshire could go ahead on July 7, 2008.

The ECB have no further comment.