Are English cricketers promoting cricket on Twitter?
English players are making their mark on the micro-blogging internet site Twitter these days. After Azeem Rafiq and Kevin Pietersen tasted glory, Dimitri Mascarenhas has joined the band wagon with a cordial message on the website as
well.
As a result, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has suspended http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hampshire-c789 skipper Dimitri Mascarenhas for two weeks from the start of the 2011 season as a repercussion to his foul-mouthed Twitter flare-up against national selector
Geoff Miller.
The 32-year-old Mascarenhas, who has made 20 ODI and 14 T20 appearances for England, supplicated accountable to two arraigns of the personal attack on the national selector at a Cricket Discipline Commission panel on Wednesday. Dimitri
Mascarenhas was banned for going against the directives of England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) by blasting Miller and for bringing the game into disrepute by using rude language in public domain. In addition to the 14 day ban, Mascarenhas was also ordered
to pay the costs for the hearing, which is equivalent to £500.
Mascarenhas, who has missed most of the 2010 season duo to an Achilles injury, has failed to make it to England’s limited overs setup for the last one year. His last ODI appearance for England was against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 on the 17th
of September. The prospects for his recall to the English national team, that seemed slim last week, are pretty much non-existent after ECB’s move to ban him for 14 days at the start of coming season following an enraged blast against Geoff Miller, the England
national selector by Mascarenhas.
Mascarenhas’ fury came as a response to the evident snub during a Championship fixture against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lancashire-c806 at Liverpool earlier this month. Though the English all-rounder was not playing in the match, but Miller’s apparent cold-shoulder
to his existence obviously got his goat.
The first of the two foul-mouthed messages posted on Twitter stated, "Chairman of selectors came to Liverpool and didn't even come and say hi... what a p****.. Doesn't take much to say hello does it?"
Eight hours later, the ignored Dimitri Mascarenhas was in full fuming mode as he posted his second message on his twitter account which said, "Geoff Miller is a complete k***.. He had no clue what he is doing.. Fing p****...."
The punishment of a two week ban and a £500 fine served by the ECB stemmed from these two rude messages posted by Mascarenhas on the 5th of this month.
The Hampshire skipper has already apologised for the twitter feeds admitting that the massages were posted accidently during a night out. He had already been fined £1000 by the Hampshire County but the management had not imposed a
ban on him owing to his long-term Achilles injury that kept him out of the game for most of the ongoing season.
Mascarenhas’ case is not the first one reported in the history of ECB rather it has become a habit of English players to use twitter as a source to show their anguish on selection matters. Mascarenhas’ posts came just a week after
Kevin Pietersen’s outrage on twitter following his ouster from England’s T20 and ODI squad against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755. Pietersen accidently broke ECB’s squad announcement embargo when he posted a message on Twitter that read, "Done for rest of summer!! Man of the World
Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too. Its a f**k up!!"
Though the post was quickly removed by Pietersen followed by an apology to Coach Andy Flower, Geoff Miller, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hugh-Morris-c63550 and Paul Collingwood, but the player was fined by the ECB.
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Yorkshire-c867 off-spinner Azeem Rafiq was the first one to get a £500 fine along with a one month suspension from all formats of cricket after a Twitter attack on the English Under-19 coach John Abraham for his omission from the 2nd
Test against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758.
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