And You Can Bugger Off Home As Well

Vermeulen spots a 12 year-old giving him the finger.






Ex-Zimbabwe star Mark Vermeulen has been banned from English first-class and league cricket for 10 years for throwing a ball at spectators.

Vermeulen, who played eight Tests and 32 one-dayers, lost his cool after struggling with bat and ball. Apparently he was getting some stick from the crowd after conceeding four runs in one over (pretty harsh judges in Lancasshire aren't they?) and set off for a confrontation with the people paying his wages.

The ball did not hit anyone and he was led back to the pavilion before his team conceded the match.

League chairman Howard Donsfield told the Oldham Advertiser: "I was at the game and hope I don't ever see anything like it again - it was a sad sight for cricket. It's not just about spectators - there was a 15-year-old boy among Vermeulen's team-mates and it's not the kind of example he should set."

Vermeulen does have previous as they say.

In 1996 he was banned from schools cricket for knocking out his stumps after being given out.

In 2003 he was sent home from Zimbabwe's tour of England for leaving the ground on his own after twice being dismissed for ducks on the third day of the second Test.

So there you go, now he can go back to Zimbabwe where he'll learn exactly what verbal tolerance and turning the other cheek can mean.