LONDON, Oct 14: South African all-rounder Andrew Hall has lost his appeal against a two-match ban and will miss the Tests against Pakistan starting this week.

The International Cricket Council Code of Conduct Commission’s Sir Oliver Popplewell, a former English High Court Judge, upheld ICC Referee Clive Lloyd’s ruling that Hall brought the game into disrepute.

Hall was banned for inappropriate and deliberate physical contact with Pakistan’s Yousuf Youhana during the second one-day match in Lahore on Oct 5.

He appeared to impede Youhana with an elbow while the batsman was taking a run.

No one who has seen the video, and I have seen it four or five times, can be in any doubt that there was a very serious confrontation between Mr Hall and Mr Youhana and that a Level 3 charge of breach of C2 was entirely appropriate,” said Sir Oliver.

South African captain Graeme Smith was also fined and banned from one one-day match for using abusive language as the players argued over the matter.—AFP