“Unacceptable”

SATURDAY’S C grade match between Strathbogie Panthers and Yarrawonga Mulwala was ended after 10.4 overs due to umpire abuse, and two members of the Strathbogie Panthers Cricket Club have been charged with abusive language, disputing an umpire’s decision, and intimidation of an umpire by threatening language. The players in question have been offered 10 week suspensions, which they can appeal, and the game was awarded to Yarrawonga Mulwala. “The situation that occurred on Saturday was totally unacceptable, and is one of the reasons we were striving to flag the fact that we weren’t going to put up with that sort of behaviour,” WDCA head of umpires Michael Hurley said. “We’ll be meeting on Wednesday night to discuss that as a WDCA executive. “We need to give the process due consideration, but by the same token we don’t want to expose anyone to any further potential (abuse). "The WDCA constitution does outline a process for members who bring the association into disrepute and this may be an option that the executive committee explores when we meet this week. "We have to be mindful that as an association that we have a duty of care to all participants, with a particular emphasis on our younger players who we certainly don’t want exposed to any unacceptable behaviour on a cricket field." Despite the incident, since Hurley confirmed back in November umpires would be cracking down on sledging and abusive language to a greater extent than before, captain and umpire reports have shown an improvement in player conduct. Hurley said the single outlier should not overshadow a much-improved season, but the league would take appropriate action to ensure this sort of abuse never happens again. “It would be fair to say we’re seeing some really good signs that player behaviour has improved, and looking at the reports I receive from captains, there’s also a general understanding of the importance of having umpires there," he said. “I’m seeing significantly improved assessments of umpires – yeah, we get the wobbly one or two, I got some comments this week, but the positive about that is the captains are writing some comments so I can go back to the umpires with feedback.” There are two more weekends of cricket before the association breaks for Christmas.

“Unacceptable”

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