India batter Cheteshwar Pujara has been suspended for his side Sussex's upcoming match against Derbyshire in the County Championship. Pujara has received an automatic suspension after his club side accumulated a fourth fixed penalty of the season, which also sees the team receiving a 12-point penalty.
India batter is leading Sussex in the Division II of the County Championship. According to County Championship's rules, a side which reaches four penalties gets a 12-point deduction and the captain who led them in all those games also faces a match suspension. Sussex were hit with their third and fourth penalty in the match against Leicestershire at Hove. Tom Haines was reported for a Level One offence, while Jack Carson was hit with a Level Two offence.
The two players have been dropped by Sussex for their next clash. Meanwhile, Ari Karvelas will also remain out of the fixture as his incident in the Leicestershire game is being investigated. "We have made Jack and Tom unavailable for selection for this game at Derbyshire. Following the umpires and match referee's decision to charge both players with on-field level one and level two offences, we needed to take a stance, and show them we will not condone such behaviours," team head coach Paul Farbrace said.
He also opened up on Pujara's ban and the points getting deducted. "Ultimately it has cost us the availability of Cheteshwar and we have been deducted 12 points. We have also decided it is not appropriate for Ari Karvelas to be made available for selection until the investigation that is in place has been concluded.
This provides other players in our squad with a great opportunity to show they can perform at this level, and more importantly, contribute towards the team's challenge to win matches in the County Championship," he added.
They received their first penalty as Pujara was found guilty of a level 1 offence in the opening game against Durham. The second one came when Haines was reprimanded during a match against Yorkshire.
