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Leicestershire docked 27 points for pitch breach and face relegation fight

Meera ChandranPublished 3d ago2 min readBased on 2 sources
Leicestershire docked 27 points for pitch breach and face relegation fight
Photo by Sudhakar Chandra on Unsplash

Leicestershire have been deducted 27 points for breaching pitch regulations in their August win over Glamorgan.

The independent Cricket Discipline Panel imposed the penalty midway through Leicestershire's penultimate match of the season, against Hampshire at Uptonsteel Grace Road, according to BBC Sport. The timing is brutal. The deduction has dropped Leicestershire to the bottom of the County Championship Division One table, English cricket's top domestic division played over four days.

The punishment wipes out the 19 points Leicestershire earned from beating Glamorgan by 42 runs on 23 August. An extra eight-point penalty has been applied on top. That makes 27 lost in total.

There is more. The club were also fined £5,000. A further eight-point deduction has been suspended for a year, meaning it will only bite if there is another breach.

The case centred on the surface prepared for the Glamorgan game. Match officials led by referee Ian Ramage asked Andy Mackay, the England and Wales Cricket Board's pitch and grounds adviser, to inspect it afterwards. The club were then charged with breaching the ECB's pitch regulations, which set standards for a fair contest between bat and ball.

Leicestershire can appeal within 10 working days.

For fans, this means a survival fight has suddenly got much harder. Leicestershire won promotion as Division Two title winners last season. This is their first season back in Division One after a 22-year absence.

Their results this year include an innings and 39-run win over Yorkshire in June, an innings win being a victory so complete the other side does not match your total across both of its turns to bat. But they must now beat Hampshire to avoid an immediate return to Division Two.

That looks a steep climb. Hampshire closed day two of the ongoing match on 255-3 in their second innings. That gave them a lead of 225 runs, with seven second-innings wickets still in hand and two days left to push the game away from Leicestershire.

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