News

Senior rapped for 'cheat' remark.

Simon Foster has been handed a suspended Cavaliers ban and fines totalling £4 for calling an opposition player a cheat.

An England and Wales Cricket Board panel imposed a three-match ban, suspended for 12 months, following a disciplinary hearing at Lord's.

The Harpenden Cavaliers batting supremo was also fined £2 and ordered to pay a further £2 towards the cost of a Magnum ice-cream.

He admitted being in breach of ECB rules 4.2 and 4.3 which prohibit players and officials from making any statement which constitutes a verbal attack on another individual who is subject to the same jurisdiction.

Foster's comments were made following his club's 4-wicket defeat by Gayton (aka 'The Little Shrimpers') in the recent Northampton away match, a result which put his side's season into further decline.

The Cavaliers squad claimed Australian Bruce Waldron placed his full foot and hand onto and over the boundary line after taking a catch in the 17th over of the match.

The dismissal was allowed to stand but the Cavaliers felt the umpire should have signalled a six instead.

The club lodged a protest, but the ECB refused to reverse the result.

A clearly incensed Foster labelled Waldron a cheat at junction 15 service station on the M1 - "perhaps in the circumstances understandable as the player was worried about Ellis running out of petrol," said an ECB statement.

But Foster then compounded the matter in an interview with the Cavaliers Website in which he was quoted as saying: "I blame the win-at-all-costs culture of cheating which is taking cricket down the road that has made football such a sleazy game.

"In football it's diving, shirt-pulling, conning refs and feigning injury. None of which I have ever done during my footballing years"

"In cricket, it is claiming catches on the bounce, pretending that the ball hasn't gone over the rope and players standing their ground when they've thick-edged it to slip."

Gayton CC Captain Sean O'Brien told the Cavaliers Web team that he expected to discuss the matter with Waldron down the pub, although he stressed any decision would rest with the player