LONDON, Sept 14: A Zimbabwean Test cricketer could be banned from playing in England and Wales for 10 years for throwing a ball at spectators after becoming frustrated with his bowling.Mark Vermeulen, who has played eight Tests and 32 one-day internationals, was playing as an overseas professional on Sunday for local league side Werneth in northern England when he was hit for a four and a six before bowling a wide.

Responding to jeering supporters, he walked towards the boundary and threw the ball at them, but it hit railings. Several children were sitting in the pavilion at the time.

The 27-year-old then pulled up a boundary marker from the ground and brandished it at the crowd before stomping around the outfield “like a raging bull” for ten minutes, spectators said.

He was then escorted back to the pavilion by a team official. Vermeulen is known as a right-hand batsman and only an occasionally right-arm off-spinner.

“I've never seen anything like it in all my years of watching cricket,” Central Lancashire League chairman Howard Dronsfield said.

“There were families and several old ladies in the crowd. I was devastated that they had to witness scenes like that.”

Governing body the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said Vermeulen had been banned from the Central Lancashire League for 10 years.—AFP