LONDON, July 11: Nottinghamshire will play in the last eight of the English Twenty20 Cup after Yorkshire were thrown out of the tournament on Thursday for fielding an ineligible player.

The incident happened last month in a crucial North Division group match when Yorkshire faced Nottinghamshire but failed to register Pakistani Azeem Rafiq as a first-team player with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Matters got worse for the Yorkshire club when it emerged the 17-year-old Rafiq did not hold a British passport.The ECB’s disciplinary commission panel met at Old Trafford on Thursday, ruling that Yorkshire would be excluded for the remainder of the competition.

Nottinghamshire – beaten by nine wickets in the match Rafiq played in – now face Durham in a quarter-final showdown at Chester-le-Street.

Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves said he was “totally and utterly disappointed” at the decision.

Graves said Yorkshire may appeal the decision and said: “We are totally disappointed. We put in a very good presentation. We’ll have a sit down and decide what to do next.”—AFP