Gabriel banned for anti-gay slur
The International Cricket Council has banned for four one-day internationals West Indies bowler Shannon Gabriel after he was accused by England captain Joe Root of making a homophobic comment.
In the third test in St Lucia on Monday, Root was picked up on a broadcast feed saying to Gabriel: ‘‘Don’t use it as an insult. There’s nothing wrong with being gay.’’ The preceding comment by Gabriel could not be heard on the clip posted by British broadcaster Sky Sports. The ICC said Gabriel had been charged with a breach of its code of conduct.
The governing body tweeted that ‘‘the charge, which was laid by match umpires, will now be dealt with by match referee Jeff Crowe.’’
It was then confirmed Gabriel would miss the first four ODIs between the West Indies and England.
‘‘Gabriel already had five demerit points against his name for two earlier incidents – three demerit points during the Jamaica test against Pakistan in April 2017 and two demerit points in the Chittagong test against Bangladesh last November,’’ the ICC said.
‘‘With the addition of these three demerit points, he has reached the threshold of eight demerit points, which, pursuant to article 7.6 of the Code, have been converted into four suspension points.’’
British sports minister Mims Davies praised Root ‘‘for doing the absolute right thing to properly call this out.’’