‘Hole’ lot of trouble

A TEMPESTUOUS Tanner Cup clash between Saddleworth and Whalley Range resulted in bans totalling 21 matches.

The Saddleworth and District Cricket League’s disciplinary committee dealt with a raft of offences after assessing reports from the stormy Well-i-Hole encounter.

The committee followed the guidelines laid down in the discplinary tariff in the league handbook in dishing out punishments.

Whalley Range’s Sulman Malik was found to have hit Darren Shadford (Saddleworth) with his bat.

It was deemed a category one offence and Malik was banned for six games.

The committee said Shadford provoked Malik. He was served with a two-match ban, with another two suspended until the end of the season.

Being a former county professional, the committee felt Shadford should have set a better example.

Jangai Abbas, of Whalley Range, was handed a six-game ban for using foul and abusive language, also a category one offence.

The committee said: “There can be no place in life never mind on a cricket field for the language that Abbas used that day”.

Abbas was slapped with an additional one-game ban, along with team-mates Janaid and Faizan, for entering the field of play without permission of the umpires.

Whalley Range’s Paul Davies was found guilty of hitting his stumps with his bat which, although deemed an act of frustration in the committee’s findings, was punished with a two-match ban.

Both captains, Brian Lord (Saddleworth) and Waqas Malik (Whalley Range), were punished for failing to control their players. They received two-game ban, of which one was suspended until the end of the season.

“The captains are responsible for their players’ actions at all times,” said the committee’s report.

“With the number of offences listed we were left with no alternative but to ban both captains.”

Because of the number of offences in the quarter-final tie and the serious nature of them, both Saddleworth and Whalley Range clubs were found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute.

They were fined £100 and warned of their future conduct for the “lack of respect shown to the umpires, the SDCL and the game of cricket.”

If either club are reported again this season, the committee said, they would suffer a further fine, have points deducted or both.

The umpires claimed that “Saddleworth players” used racial and abusive language, but the alleged perpetrators could not be identified.

“This behaviour by both clubs will not be tolerated by the SDCL,” the committee’s report went on.

‘Both clubs must speak to their players as their future conduct is going to be under close scrutiny for the rest of the season’

“It could cost their club not only fines or points, but also their good name and by association that of the SDCL.”

The players and clubs have until tomorrow to lodge appeals.

If no appeals are forthcoming, the bans will start on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Danny Harrop, of Friarmere, has accepted an eight-match ban for using foul and abusive language towards an umpire during the Twenty20 Competition tie against Stayley.

Harrop had served a four-match ban earlier in the season.