Proteas batsman Herschelle Gibbs will probably be able to play in the second Test against Pakistan in Port Elizabeth from Friday, after notifying the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday that he intends appealing against his two-Test ban.
Gibbs was banned for two Test matches after he was found guilty on Monday of breaching level 3.3 of the ICC code of conduct, which prohibits the use of ”… any language or gesture that offends, insults, humiliates, intimidates, threatens, disparages or vilifies another person on the basis of that person’s race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin.”
Chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association, Tony Irish, said Gibbs would appeal against the ban on the basis that the finding was incorrect, and that implications that he had been racist in his remarks were not acceptable.
”The ban will be lifted until the appeal is heard, which means he should be available for the second Test in Port Elizabeth, and maybe even the third Test,” said Irish.
He said the appeal would be conducted by the ICC, which would be represented by either a senior legal practitioner from any of the ICC member countries, or a legal committee.
Earlier on Tuesday, former judge Mervyn King postponed Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) disciplinary hearing into Gibbs’s conduct until the finalisation of his appeal against the ICC’s findings.
King, who was conducting the CSA hearing, said he had postponed the hearing because the ICC findings and suspension had a bearing on the CSA disciplinary matter.
The disciplinary hearings were instituted after Gibbs was heard making abusive remarks about a group of Pakistan supporters. His remarks were picked up by a stump microphone and transmitted to television viewers around the world.
Proteas captain Graeme Smith said there was a lot of anger within the South African team about the verbal abuse they had been subjected to by some of the Pakistan supporters.
”We don’t condone what was said, but we can understand why it happened,” said Smith.
”I think security needs to be looked at as regards the Pakistan supporters. The guys came in for a lot of abuse from them and they were quite emotional about it.” — Sapa