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Yorkshire thrown out of Twenty20 Cup

10/07/2008

Yorkshire have been thrown out of the Twenty20 Cup after fielding an ineligible player in an earlier round.

It follows the club's earlier admission it had played a non-registered and ineligible player - youngster Azeem Rafiq – against Nottinghamshire on June 27th.

The competition was thrown into chaos last Monday when Yorkshire's quarter-final with Durham at the Riverside was called off at the last minute when the issue emerged.

Durham had petitioned the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to throw Yorkshire out of the cup and give them a bye to the semi-finals.

But on Thursday a disciplinary commission chaired by Judge Edward Slinger with James Pickup QC and Simon Schanschieff also sitting said Nottinghamshire would now progress to the quarter-finals to play Durham at Chester-le-Street.

Yorkshire have also been handed a £1,000 fine, although the club is entitled to lodge an appeal against both the penalty and the suspension.

In their ruling the panel said Yorkshire did not deliberately flout the regulations but that it was too serious a breach to be passed over as a clerical error.

"The panel [found] 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 27th 2008 the player was making his debut."

Rafiq, who holds a Pakistani passport but has captained the England under-15s team in the past, was drafted in as a late replacement for Michael Vaughan when it became clear the England captain was to be rested for the match.

But it transpired later that Yorkshire had apparently failed to fulfil their obligations to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) regarding the 17-year-old's required paperwork, as he was not a fully contracted member of the squad.