Charged Gabriel banned for four games

West Indies bowler Shannon Gabriel has been banned for the first four games of the one-day series against England after accepting a code of conduct charge relating to his exchange with Joe Root during the third Test.

The paceman was charged by on-field umpires Rod Tucker and Kumar Dharmasena after an incident on day three in St Lucia. Gabriel’s precise words are not known, but England captain Root was heard on stump microphones responding with “don’t use it as an insult. There’s nothing wrong with being gay”.

Gabriel did not contest the charge, which related to “personal abuse”, in a brief post-match meeting with match referee Jeff Crowe, but it is understood he does not believe himself guilty of homophobic slurs.

The 30-year-old Trinidadian was fined 75 per cent of his match fee and handed three demerit points, taking his total to eight in a two-year period following previous offences against Pakistan and Bangladesh.

That left him facing a ban of either four limited-over internationals or two Tests and he will miss all but one match of the 50-over series against England as a result.

His name was not in the original one-day squad announced for the first two games against England, but, with Keemo Paul injuring his quadricep in the third Test and Rovman Powell also a fitness doubt, the Windies intended to draft him in for all five matches.

He previously missed a Test against Bangladesh in November 2018 on disciplinary grounds.

Cricket West Indies is understood to be comfortable with the International Cricket Council’s application of the rules in this instance, provided the zero tolerance approach is applied across the board in future.

It has been noted that Gabriel’s comments were not caught on the microphone and the ICC has effectively set a precedent for future charges relating to on-field exchanges between players.