Mark Vermeulen, former Zimbabwean test batsman has been banned from English Cricket for 10 years after hurling a cricket ball into the crowd and threatening to hurl a steel boundary marker after suffering some sledging from spectators whilst bowling.

Vermeulen had bowled a four ball and a wide in his first two deliveries, after which a spectator was heard to yell, "If you take your Sunnies off you'll be able to see where you're bowling!". Vermeulen launched his attack at the end of that over.

The Lancashire League have imposed the 10 year ban with support from the ECB.

http://content-www3.cricinfo.com/ci/...ml?CMP=OTC-RSS

This raises a couple of questions to me. Vermeulen is clearly in the wrong, yet a 10 year ban seems very harsh. I've heard in the last couple of years about English nationals resorting to racist verbal abuse of opponents and even a physical attack on an umpire, yet these offences resulted in less harsh penalties being incurred.

Does this suggest that there's one rule for the English and one rule for Foreign Players?

This is surely the end of the line for Vermeulen himself. Never the best of players, I'm sure that there won't exactly be other teams queuing up for his services.