DISCIPLINARY REPORT - AGREED ACTION

Date: 10th October 2014

A complaint was received following an incident at Southport & Birkdale CC on 16 August.

The player, Simon Pearce a playing member st S&B, posted 'tweets' on his Twitter account which were also sent to Maghull CC's Twitter website. The 'tweets' were considered to be offensive and a complaint was lodged with the L&DCC. The player refused to apologise for these 'tweets' and the club also refused to take any action.

A Disciplinary Hearing took place on 25 September and the matter was dealt with in his absence and regrettably without any representation from the club. The Panel agreed that the 'tweets' were abusive and Simon Pearce is banned from playing cricket for two weeks commencing at midnight on the Friday immediately before the start of the 2015 season. In addition a two week ban suspended until the end of the 2015 season was also imposed. The club has not appealed this decision.

The misuse of 'Twitter' has led to several similar disciplinary bans this season and all clubs and players are reminded that such misuse, which is expressly condemned by ECB, will be dealt with severely in future.

Eric Hadfield

L&DCC Disciplinary Secretary