UMPIRES will have to send off players who commit serious disciplinary off-ences if a Home Counties Premier League rule change gets the go-ahead.

The proposal comes in response to last season’s brawl between Aston Rowant’s Tim Miles and Basingstoke’s Dean Nurse.

It will be voted on at the league’s annual general meeting on January 21, which will also look to tighten up registration rules.

League umpires panel chairman John Reed said: “It is a rule that is in the Minor Counties regulations and we felt it was appropriate to introduce.

“There can then be no argument about what is done.

“In my opinion, both players should have been sent from the pitch at Aston Rowant.

“That they were allowed to continue was a disgrace, in my view.”

Reed said the captains should have withdrawn Miles and Nurse after they came to blows on the field at Butts Way.

But the amendment, if carried, will give umpires that power.

Reed added: “We hope these things don’t have to be implemented.

“The disappointing thing here is that it is a game of cricket.

“It should be people going out there to enjoy themselves.

“I think Aston Rowant have lost a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t like what they have done and how they have done it.

“We just have to move on now.”

If passed, the new policy will see players who commit ‘level 4’ disciplinary breaches excluded for the rest of the match.

Such breaches include threatening an umpire and physically assaulting another player, umpire, official or spectator.

Also listed under level 4 are any act of violence on the field and using language or gestures that seriously offend, insult, humiliate, intimidate, threaten, disparage or vilify on the basis of religion, sexual orientation, colour or ethnic origin.

The wording of the amendment states “for a level 4 breach the umpires shall immediately suspend the player(s) from any further participation in the game.”

What do you think about the proposal? Email your view to sportsdesk@oxfordmail.co.uk