Leicestershire relegation confirmed after losing appeal

Leicestershire's relegation from Division One of the County Championship has been confirmed after failing in their appeal against points penalty.

It was during the penultimate match of the season in mid-September that the independent cricket discipline panel handed down an initial 27-point punishment for the poor pitch they produced against Glamorgan a month earlier.

Leicestershire were stripped of all 19 points earned in the win over Glamorgan and hit with an extra eight-point penalty - as well as a further suspended eight-point deduction and £5,000 fine.

That dropped them to the bottom of the table before they were eventually relegated - pending their appeal - eight days later.

Their appeal appeared to get a boost soon after the season ended when they had eight points reinstated after the Cricket Regulator raised questions with the discipline panel.

For more than five weeks, however, Leicestershire's relegation and the survival of Essex, who finished 17 points above the Foxes, remained in limbo.

The appeals panel upheld the disciplinary tribunal's decision to dock Leicestershire the 19 points earned in the win against Glamorgan after they "failed to show it had acted reasonably in preparing the pitch", which was rated as "poor" and deemed "sub-standard".

The panel also rejected Leicestershire's attempt to bring forward fresh evidence - presented by the Pakistan Cricket Board's chief curator Tony Hemmings - by stating "the club is the author of its own misfortune".

The panel's "view" was that there "appears to have been a woeful lack of understanding" of regulations by those in charge at Leicestershire.

"TH's (Hemmings') evidence was reasonably available at the time of that hearing and we reject [Leicestershire's legal representative] Mr Harris' submission to the contrary," the panel said in its findings., external

"The senior executives at a professional cricket club should be familiar with the regulations, or at least to remind themselves of them as circumstances may require. That was not done here."

Leicestershire chief executive Emma White said it was "deeply frustrating" that the expert evidence was not heard, adding that the club "felt rushed and under considerable pressure throughout this process".

"We are hugely disappointed by this outcome, but we will not allow it to define us," she added in a statement on the club website., external

Leicestershire's 42-run victory against Glamorgan on 23 August was just their second of the season and they thought it would aid their battle to avoid an immediate return to the second tier.

But the condition of pitch, which Glamorgan head coach Richard Dawson described at the time as "tough" for batters, immediately came under scrutiny as match officials asked for the England and Wales Cricket Board's pitch and grounds advisor Andy Mackay to carry out an inspection after the game finished.

The highest team score in the match was Leicestershire's 257 all out in their second innings.

While Leicestershire head coach Alfonso Thomas argued that the surface had been prepared in the same way as the pitch used against Yorkshire - a game the Foxes won by an innings and 39 runs in June - he also acknowledged it was "a bit drier than what we wanted" for the match against Glamorgan.

Leicestershire's head groundsman Callum Lewin went on to tell the cricket regulator there were "circumstances leading up to the game that were just out of my control".

It included the exceptionally hot summer weather, as well as an "unscheduled Bollywood filming event" that took place at Uptonsteel Grace Road days before the match started.

It was said "the arrangements for this had been chaotic", with another member of the ground staff, Mark Smith, saying the 13 hours that the pitch was left uncovered was "crazy".

Foxes CEO White said the grounds team has her "full support" and added "I remain immensely proud of the work they do".

"Come pre-season, we will be ready to battle it out in Division Two, and to fight our way back," she continued.