Kingston Bagpuize skipper Dave Pearce has hit out at the behaviour of a Wolverton player following an alleged flare-up in their final Oxford Times Cherwell League match of the season last week.
Both clubs, plus the players concerned in the fracas – Wolverton’s Hakim Khan and Kingston’s Robert Keates – plus both captains have been summoned to a league disciplinary hearing to answer charges later this month.
Kingston captain Dave Pearce said: “It’s the worst incident I’ve seen on a cricket field in 26 or 27 years of playing.
“ If I had been able to, I would have called the game off there and then.
“But there was a thought that if we abandoned the game we might have been deducted points and been relegated.”
Even though they lost the game, Kingston stayed up.
It is alleged by Kingston that Hakim Khan threw punches at Keates following strong remarks when he was dismissed during the Division 3 game at Kingston.
Pearce said: “There was some banter which turned nasty when the Wolverton batsman (Khan) was out.
“He came in flailing at Rob Keates, who put his hands up in self-defence.
“Our players had to restrain the batsman from punching Keates.
“He then went at Keates a second time. It was only when one of our players, who is a policeman, got hold of him that he calmed down. He was then ushered off by his own side.
“Play resumed after about five minutes in a very subdued atmosphere.
“It’s now our feeling that we don’t want that player (Khan) to appear at our ground when we play them next season.”
Wolverton captain Andy Gosling, said: “I don’t condone what our batsman did, but it was all started by the verbal abuse he received from the Kingston players.”
“However, the club will be taking disciplinary action against him, once we have all the reports in,” said Gosling, who had seen the umpires’ report, which he described as “totally inaccurate”.
“No punches were actually landed”
The league’s hearing will be at Thame on September 29.
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