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Gibbons’ fate still unknown

Treadwell Gibbons (right) shows his anger after being given out by umpire Richard Austin in the second St George's innings at Cup Match.

The fate of Treadwell Gibbons jr whose unsportsmanlike conduct marred this year’s Cup Match has yet to be determined — three weeks after the annual classic ended in a tame draw at Wellington Oval.Bermuda Cricket Umpires Association (BCUA) president Steven Douglas confirmed that the umpires’ report from this year’s match have been submitted to St George’s Cricket Club officials who will ultimately determine whether or not to punish Gibbons.“The report is in and the ball is in their court now,” Douglas said. “We had a meeting the other day and Richard (BCUA secretary Richard Austin) said the report is in so the umpires have done their part.”Austin was the umpire who judged Gibbons out in St George’s second innings to a catch by Somerset’s Janeiro Tucker in the slips off the bowling of off break spinner Jacobi Robinson.Gibbons strongly rejected the umpire’s decision before venting his anger towards Somerset players and a spectator near the clubhouse.The player apologised for his behaviour ten days after the match ended, telling reporters at a press conference “it was never an intention of mine to hurt anyone or hit anyone. My actions on the second day of Cup Match were wrong, I got caught up in the heat of the moment”.Gibbons’ conduct has been condemned by many in the local cricket community with former St George’s Cup Match star Lee Raynor describing the player’s antics as “shameful” and embarrassing”.Raynor also urged St George’s officials to impose tough disciplinary sanctions on Gibbons.Repeated attempts to obtain feedback from St George’s Cricket Club on the matter have been unsuccessful.“I have no comment on that right now till I get the report in,” was all club president Neil Paynter was prepared to say when contacted back on August 4. “That’s all I have to say.”Paynter has not returned further calls from this newspaper since.Last week ex -St George’s Cup Match skipper and star bowler Clarence Parfitt took his former club to task for seemingly dragging their feet over the matter and failing to, at the very least, offer a public statement on their player’s conduct that marred proceedings.Gibbons’ conduct did not go unnoticed by Bermuda Cricket Board (BCB) who have launched their own investigation into the incident, that held play up for several minutes, and suspended the all-rounder from a senior national training squad preparing for November’s ICC World Twenty20 qualifiers in Dubai.Gibbons, who turned 28 earlier this month, has a history of disciplinary run-ins dating back a decade.In 2003 he was axed from Bermuda’s Under-19 squad and banned six games for fighting team-mate George O’Brien Jr during a practice session at the National Sports Centre and believed to have been reprimanded for displaying unsportsmanlike conduct at the West Indies Cricket Board Under-19 Youth Tournament in Jamaica.Four years later he received a two-year ban for showing “serious dissent at an umpire’s decision, threatening to assault an umpire and using foul language or gestures that seriously offend, insult, humiliate, intimidate or vilifies another person on the basis of that person’s race, religion, colour or ethnic origin after refusing to walk after being given lbw out during a match” that was reduced to eight games on appeal.