Sussex’s Mitch Claydon handed nine-match ban for tampering ball by applying hand sanitiser
Sussex pacer Mitch Claydon has been handed a nine-game ban by the ECB, after the pacer pleaded guilty to tampering with the ball by inappropriately applying hand sanitiser on it. Claydon committed the offence versus Middlesex on August 22, after which he did not play any Bob Willis Trophy games.
After being suspended earlier by his club, Sussex, for allegedly ‘misusing’ the hand sanitiser by trying to use it to alter the condition of the ball, Mitch Claydon has been slapped with a nine-match ban on the back of an investigation conducted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). Claydon, 37, who has played 112 first-class games in his career, pleaded guilty to breaching ECB directives 3.3 and 3.7, due to which the pacer was handed a nine-game ban by the board.
The ECB directives in question are as follows
3.3 No Participant may conduct themself in a manner or do any act or omission at any time which is improper or which may be prejudicial to the interests of cricket or which may bring the ECB, the game of cricket or any cricketer or group of cricketers into disrepute.
3.7 Contravention of the Bob Willis Trophy Playing Conditions 5 or 41.2 … shall be regarded as (i) unfair and improper conduct; and (ii) conduct prejudicial to the interests of cricket and likely to bring the game into disrepute.
However, despite the official ban reading ‘nine games’, Claydon will only have to sit out two first-class games at the start of next season, after missing out on seven of Sussex’s games over the course of the past month and a half due to the club provisionally suspending him. Claydon committed the bizarre offence in Sussex’s Bob Willis Trophy game versus Middlesex on August 22, after which he played just two more games for the club - T20 Blast bouts versus Middlesex and Essex on September 18 and 20 respectively.
Sussex, meanwhile, have also been charged with breaching ECB directives 3.3 and 3.7 and are expected to face a Cricket Disciplinary Committee hearing over the coming weeks.