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Former England wicket-keeper Chris Read received on Friday a fresh punishment from English cricket chiefs after an extraordinary pitch-side bust-up with Pakistan leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed.

Read was handed a suspended one-match ban from the County Championship, until the end of the 2007 season, and any further disciplinary penalty he receives between now and then will see that ban enforced.

He had already been given three penalty points under the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)’s disciplinary code for breaching provisions relating to the use of obscene or insulting language towards another player.

The sanction followed an incident during a County Championship match earlier this month after Sussex spinner Mushtaq trapped Read lbw fifth ball for a duck.

After being given out, Read briefly returned to the pavilion before coming out to confront Mushtaq on the third-man boundary.

An angry exchange ensued in which Read, who had been irritated by Mushtaq’s appeals on earlier deliveries, used the word “cheat,” according to astonished spectators at the normally sleepy ground in Hove.

The penalty points remain on Read’s record for a period of two years.

The accumulation of nine or more penalty points in any two-year period triggers an automatic suspension.

Source:The News