An expert county coach has been suspended from cricket for six months by the Cricket Self-discipline Fee (CDC) after participating in inappropriate conduct with a participant beneath his care.
The incidents occurred in March 2024, on a pre-season tour for the boys’s and girls’s groups from an unspecified county. It was considered severe misconduct by The Cricket Regulator, with the coach dropping his position within the skilled recreation.
The ECB issued a cost letter to the coach on Might 22, 2024, citing a breach of regulation 3.3 of the 2023 Skilled Conduct Laws which states: “No Participant might conduct themself in a way, do any act or make any omission at any time which is improper, or which can be prejudicial to the pursuits of cricket, or which can convey the ECB, the sport of cricket or any cricketer or group of cricketers into disrepute.” On July 25, 2024, the coach wrote to the CDC to confess the cost.
Each the identification of the coach – referred to within the Regulator’s revealed findings as “Coach A” – and the participant in query (“Participant 1”) have been anonymised, together with one other participant (Participant 2) and a senior worker on the county, who offered witness statements. The CDC insisted on redacting identities to make sure victims or doubtlessly susceptible witnesses couldn’t be recognized.
Different proof included a name log exhibiting calls between Coach A and Participant 1, a schedule setting out messages between Coach A and Participant 1, and the transcript of Coach A’s interview with the Regulator. The CDC noticed no want to breed the total information of the choice given they’ve been admitted by the respective events.
Three months of Coach A’s six-month suspension has already deemed to be served as he was out of the sport for the reason that date of the final incident in March 2024, with the second set of three months suspended for a two-year interval from that point, relying on the coach’s future conduct. The CDC supported the advice for him to undertake applicable coaching at his personal value and haven’t imposed a effective conscious of the affect of the monetary loss on Coach A and his household.
In an announcement launched on Tuesday, interim director of The Cricket Regulator Dave Lewis mentioned: “The Cricket Regulator seeks to guard all contributors from inappropriate sexual behaviour, notably when perpetrated by these able of energy or belief. The Regulator recognises the significance of contributors feeling empowered to report these issues and can at all times search to guard the identities of victims and susceptible witnesses.”
The CDC thought of mitigating components when sentencing Coach A, together with the actual fact he took full accountability for his actions from the beginning, apologised, expressed contrition and had “an unblemished file over an extended profession” previous to the incidents. The panel additionally famous Coach A had not too long ago accomplished all of the required safeguarding programs and has since gained an up-to-date DBS examine.
