Leicestershire hit with 16-point penalty for disciplinary offence

Its fast bowler Charlie Shreck was found to have used obscene language or gestures in a match against Loughborough students last week.

A file photo of Leicestershire’s Australian captain Mark Cosgrove.

Leicestershire was hit with a 16-point penalty on the eve of the new County Championship season and has had its Australian captain, Mark Cosgrove, suspended for one match, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced on Thursday.

The county was punished after pace bowler Charlie Shreck was found to have used obscene language or gestures in a match against Loughborough students last week. Shreck's offence was the fifth time in 12 months that Leicestershire had been found guilty of a disciplinary offence which, under England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) regulations, triggered the 16-point penalty and led to a one-game ban for Cosgrove as he had been the captain on all five occasions.

England's Cricket Discipline Commission also fined the club GBP 5,000 (USD 6,233, EUR 5,856), with a further eight-point penalty suspended for one year. Leicestershire begins its Second Division campaign in the first-class County Championship at home to Midlands rival Nottinghamshire on Friday.

An ECB statement said 32-year-old batsman Cosgrove, a former Australia One-Day International cricketer, would be suspended for the County Championship match between Leicestershire and Glamorgan starting on April 21, pending any appeal which may be lodged.