July 13, 2008	Sunday	Rajab 9, 1429

LONDON, July 12: Yorkshire have confirmed they will appeal against their expulsion from the Twenty20 Cup.

The England and Wales Cricket Board’s discipline commission decided that Yorkshire’s use of Azeem Rafiq, a former England Under-15 and Under-16 captain who does not hold a British passport, in a group match against Nottinghamshire was a sufficient breach of the rules to force their ejection from the competition.

Because of his Pakistani passport, Rafiq officially qualifies as an overseas player and as Pakistan star Rana Naved-ul-Hasan had not been deregistered, he was ineligible to play.

When the issue came to the ECB’s attention they called for Yorkshire’s Monday night quarter-final against Durham to be postponed pending an investigation.

A three-man panel then heard from all interested parties at Old Trafford on Thursday before awarding Nottinghamshire the points for the game in question and awarding them the remaining berth in the last eight.

Yorkshire were given a 1700GMT deadline on Friday to register their appeal and released a statement just minutes before their time ran out.

“Further to a board meeting of The Yorkshire County Cricket Club this morning, the club have confirmed to the ECB that they will be appealing against the decision to exclude the club from this year’s Twenty20 Cup competition,” the statement read.

“The club feel that the punishment is manifestly disproportionate to the offence and as such feels duty-bound on behalf of its players, members and staff to lodge an appeal.

“As yet the identities of the panel hearing the appeal are unknown.”

Yorkshire’s appeal will be heard at Taunton on Monday but Durham’s chief executive David Harker doesn’t believe it will be successful.—AFP