Leicestershire’s relegation from Division One of the County Championship has been confirmed after failing in their appeal against points penalty.
It was during the penultimate match of the season in mid-September that the independent cricket discipline panel handed down an initial 27-point punishment for the poor pitch they produced against Glamorgan a month earlier.
Leicestershire were stripped of all 19 points earned in the win over Glamorgan and hit with an extra eight-point penalty – as well as a further suspended eight-point deduction and £5,000 fine.
That dropped them to the bottom of the table before they were eventually relegated – pending their appeal – eight days later.
Their appeal appeared to get a boost soon after the season ended when they had eight points reinstated after the Cricket Regulator raised questions with the discipline panel.
For more than five weeks, however, Leicestershire’s relegation and the survival of Essex, who finished 17 points above the Foxes, remained in limbo.
The appeals panel upheld the disciplinary tribunal’s decision to dock Leicestershire the 19 points earned in the win against Glamorgan after they “failed to show it had acted reasonably in preparing the pitch”, which was rated as “poor” and deemed “sub-standard”.
The panel also rejected Leicestershire’s attempt to bring forward fresh evidence – presented by the Pakistan Cricket Board’s chief curator Tony Hemmings – by stating “the club is the author of its own misfortune”.
The panel’s “view” was that there “appears to have been a woeful lack of understanding” of regulations by those in charge at Leicestershire.
“TH’s (Hemmings’) evidence was reasonably available at the time of that hearing and we reject [Leicestershire’s legal representative] Mr Harris’ submission to the contrary,” the panel said in its findings., external
“The senior executives at a professional cricket club should be familiar with the regulations, or at least to remind themselves of them as circumstances may require. That was not done here.”
Leicestershire chief executive Emma White said it was “deeply frustrating” that the expert evidence was not heard, adding that the club “felt rushed and under considerable pressure throughout this process”.
“We are hugely disappointed by this outcome, but we will not allow it to define us,” she added in a statement on the club website., external
