Leicestershire to appeal 27-point pitch deduction with survival on the line
Leicestershire will appeal the 27-point deduction imposed for the pitch prepared for their County Championship win over Glamorgan in August.
The penalty stripped the club of all 19 points earned in that game, added a further eight-point deduction, and included a £5,000 fine. It dropped Leicestershire to the bottom of Division One, the top tier of England’s four-day domestic competition, where teams collect points for wins, draws and bonus marks for batting and bowling BBC Sport.
Chief executive Emma White confirmed the appeal on the morning of 24 September, hours before Leicestershire’s final Championship match of the 2026 season away to Warwickshire. The club has instructed barrister Craig Harris of Furnival Chambers and Oliver Laurence of Periculum Sport to advise and represent it.
The case centres on a 42-run victory over Glamorgan at Uptonsteel Grace Road. It was only Leicestershire’s second Championship win of the season. Match referee Ian Ramage rated the surface as “poor” and asked ECB pitch and grounds adviser Andy Mackay to carry out a post-match inspection.
The Cricket Discipline Panel accepted that Leicestershire did not intend the pitch to play as it did. It said the case was not one of cheating. The normal starting point for a “poor” rating is a 16-point deduction, but the tribunal cut that element to eight points because the club admitted early that the surface was substandard and had no below-average, poor or unfit rating in the previous 24 months BBC Sport. A further eight-point deduction was suspended for one year.
Head groundsman Callum Lewin told the hearing that preparation had been disrupted by an unscheduled Bollywood filming event at the ground four days before the match and by exceptionally hot weather. The tribunal’s full reasoning is set out in the ECB’s published decision document ECB.
The timing is tight. Leicestershire are playing their first season back in Division One after a 22-year absence, following promotion as Division Two champions last September. They beat Hampshire last week to take the relegation fight into the final round of games Leicestershire CCC.
For fans, this means the table could still shift off the field. If the appeal succeeds, the restored points would reshape the relegation battle. If it fails, Leicestershire must survive on results alone at Edgbaston.
