The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) today announced the introduction of a Fixed Penalty disciplinary system for the coming season for registered County players. It supplements, but does not replace, the previous system whereby Counties and/or ECB took discretionary disciplinary action.

Breaches of discipline and the Spirit of Cricket are placed into four categories, each with a fixed penalty, ranging from a reprimand through to a scale of demerit points. A player who accumulates the appropriate number of demerit points in any 12-month period will receive an automatic suspension.

An ECB Disciplinary Panel may consider taking further action if it considers the offence warrants a tougher penalty than the minimum provided under the fixed penalty procedures. The ECB anticipates, however, that generally the fixed penalty will suffice to meet the seriousness of the offence. Fixed penalties will be generated by umpires reporting a player to the ECB but on the field procedures for the umpires remain unchanged - there are no yellow or red cards.

Commenting on the new system, Alan Fordham, (ECB Cricket Operations Manager), said, "While we recognise that on-field behaviour had not seriously declined, this new system is designed to assist umpires and is aimed at being fair and consistent. We welcome it and feel confident that it will maintain the good standard of discipline in our domestic game".

© ECB