The dishonest membership cricketer dubbed ‘Clicky Ponting’ has been given a two-year ban from the game following an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) investigation.
In July, footage of Brian Devine, an beginner participant for Saltburn’s 2nd group, went viral world wide after he was caught deceiving umpires by clicking his fingers because the ball handed the bat to mimic an edge and declare wickets for his group.
He was subsequently given the tongue-in-cheek nickname ‘Clicky Ponting’ – a play on former Australian captain Ricky Ponting – and the scandal precipitated amusement and outrage in equal measure.
Devine has now been banned for 2 years from involvement in cricket in any kind, be that enjoying, teaching and even scoring, in response to Teesside Live.
His group on the coast of the north-east of England have additionally suffered – punished with relegation to the third division the place they are going to begin the 2027 season with a 60-point deduction along with a £300 superb.
An announcement from Saltburn CC learn: ‘The membership absolutely participated within the disciplinary proceedings and settle for the choice of the enchantment following the unique determination from the League. We at the moment are focussing on preparations for the 2027 season.
Brian Devine – dubbed ‘Clicky Ponting’ – has been banned from cricket till September, 2028
‘The punishments come after an intensive course of which included participant interviews, written statements and an in depth evaluation of the video footage. The North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League have emailed each membership of their system to acknowledge the pressure the scandal had precipitated.’
Devine, 38, has performed for years at Saltburn Cricket Membership and is well-known on the cricket scene in North Yorkshire.
The daddy-of-one, from Guisborough, Cleveland, works as an organization secretary at Northallerton Auctions, which specialises in auctions for livestock and farm equipment and immediately grew to become the centre of a narrative that captured international consideration.
His outrageous dishonest racked up thousands and thousands of views on-line and the story got here to gentle after a match in opposition to Norton Cricket Membership.
Footage confirmed Norton batsman Noman Shabir play at and fully miss his first supply which had pitched exterior the off stump.
Because the ball handed Shabir the fielder standing at first slip, Devine, clicked his fingers.
This imitated the sound of the ball nicking the sting of Shabir’s bat and when the wicketkeeper took the catch, the umpire raised his finger to provide Shabir out.
The sport occurred to have been live-streamed on-line and a recording was preserved on the ECB’s ‘Play Cricket’ web site.
The Saltburn participant was seen on digital camera clicking his fingers every time the ball neared the bat
A Durham-based beginner cricketer named Ben Mummery, who had been tipped off in regards to the collection of occasions, posted footage to X, the place he dubbed it ‘in regards to the worst case of dishonest I’ve ever seen in cricket’.
It racked up thousands and thousands of views and put Saltburn beneath worldwide scrutiny from cricket followers throughout the globe.
Viewers turned up dozens of comparable incidents from the archives, suggesting that Saltburn (which, mockingly, calls itself a ‘pleasant, sociable and inclusive cricket membership’) had been using the cynical rip-off for greater than a season.
In virtually each one of many clips that emerged, Devine is the fielder standing at first slip.
Piers Morgan dubbed the membership’s behaviour ‘outrageous dishonest’ and a ‘shameful rip-off’.
The statistics additionally outlined the size of the breathtaking deception. Within the 13 matches that Devine performed for Saltburn final season, wicketkeepers took an astonishing 39 catches.
Within the seven that he did not play, they managed simply 5. In a single match in opposition to Shildon Railway on July 18, no fewer than eight catches have been claimed by wicketkeeper Josh Bowes.
To place that quantity in perspective, the file for wicketkeeper catches taken in a single males’s Check innings, over a interval spanning 2,600 matches and 150 years, is a mere seven.
Saltburn-by-the-Sea’s historic cricket floor, with its white picket fence and neatly mown outfield. Its group have now been booted out the league
Devine was suspended by the membership when the dishonest was unearthed on-line and in addition confronted the ignominy of being ditched by his official sponsor, a neighborhood Indian restaurant named Spices which he patronises frequently.
Again in July when the scandal broke, it was left to Georgina Vaughn, the mom of Devine’s accomplice Clare, to defend his honour.
She instructed Man Adams, Each day Mail Senior Function Author: ‘It was solely just a little village cricket match and now it is grow to be this factor that is everywhere in the information and social media. It’s got completely out of hand and there’s nothing any of us wish to say.’
Requested whether or not Devine was a person of integrity, she replied: ‘He definitely is.’
The ECB’s investigation has discovered in any other case and Devine will be unable to return to the game till September 2028.
