Why were Essex given 12 point deduction during English County Championship season?

The England Cricket Board gave a 12-point deduction to Essex during the ongoing County championships. The reason behind the move is due to the ‘Oversized bat’ used by a player named Feroze Khushi. The incident happened in April during the Essex versus Nottinghamshire game. 

Cricket Discipline Committee took the decision on Wednesday to serve a huge dent to Essex’s ongoing season. The Club put out a statement that they did take the punishment in their stride but also raised a few questions. 

The official statement of Essex read “Essex CCC regrets the outcome and, although disappointed with the appeal decision and subsequent sanctions, accepts the charges of the CDC panel. The club remains fully committed to upholding the integrity of the game and ensuring strict compliance with all relevant regulations moving forward.”

Unprecedented move in cricket 

The decision to dock Essex 12 points during the County Championships is unheard of. The entire incident began when the two on-field umpires inspected the bat of Feroze Khushi and deemed it to be a bit more oversized than the actual specification. 

Former England skipper Keith Fletcher has come out and shown his anger behind the move. Speaking to the well-known newspaper The Times, Fletcher was angry about the points deduction. 

Keith Fletcher said “Feroze does not believe he did anything wrong and the whole side has been penalized, not just the one player. As a batsman, I know that a few millimetres, either way, is not going to have any effect on performance. Umpires test bats at random and I think the ECB have been absolutely stupid."

At the current moment, Essex are 4th in the table with 149 points while Surrey are leading the table with 193. After the latest points deduction, Essex will tumble down to 137 with just two matches left to play. This makes Somerset the only team to be in a position to challenge for the title. 

Essex still have games against Warwickshire and Surrey left to be played. From the 11 games so far, Essex have won 4 matches, lost three and drawn four. Surrey has won 7 matches lost just once and drawn the rest.