The ECB has recommended an eight-week ban and £8000 fine for Gary Ballance for the use of racist language against Azeem Rafiq while the pair were at Yorkshire. The board recommended a combination of fines and suspensions for five other former players at a Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) sanction hearing on Wednesday.
The players were found guilty of using racist language by the independent three-person CDC panel last month, after a hearing in March. The charges were brought against them, and Yorkshire, from claims made by Rafiq. The panel cleared former England captain Michael Vaughan of having made a racist remark before a T20 game in June 2009; Vaughan was the only one of those charged who appeared to defend himself at the hearings.
As well as Ballance, the ECB asked for a combination of fines, suspensions, reprimands and education courses for Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale, Richard Pyrah and John Blain – all of whom either played at Yorkshire, or worked in a coaching capacity while Rafiq was there. The ECB asked for Hoggard and Pyrah to be fined £7500, Bresnan and Blain £5000 and Pyrah £4500. All six have been asked to receive reprimands from the CDC and to take part in a racism and discrimination course.
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Bresnan, Gale, Pyrah and Blain have denied all charges against them. Ballance and Hoggard both admitted to parts of the charges laid against them, which led to the ECB asking for reduced fines in both cases.
Ballance retired recently from all cricket, having first left Yorkshire late last year and then switched to play for his native Zimbabwe. He played two Tests for them, scoring a hundred in one, before he announced his retirement.
The CDC panel will now deliberate over the recommendations before returning final sanctions on the players which could take several more weeks yet.
Yorkshire were also found guilty by the CDC panel last month, having admitted to four charges laid against them. Their sanctions will be discussed at another hearing towards the end of June.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo
