DISCIPLINE starts at home.

Bermuda Cricket Board might want to remember that the next time they wave the big stick.

It's all very well for the Board to clamp down on those players who don't abide by the game's rules, but if in doing so they ignore their own governing body's rules then they're as guilty, if not moreso, as the 'culprits' they're attempting to bring to order.

That would appear to be what has happened in the case of young Dion Stovell, the promising Warwick batsman who has been slapped with a four-month ban simply for failing to walk when given out during a tour match in Jamaica over the summer.

When the umpire's finger went up, Stovell reportedly indicated that the ball had deflected off his helmet and not his bat and questioned the official's decision before eventually retiring to the pavilion. Subsequent video footage vindicated his argument.

Right or wrong, nobody condones that kind of behaviour ? when the umpire's finger appears, you accept the decision in good grace and leave the field.

But unfortunately incidents such as these happen frequently and particularly at the highest level of the game. Ask Brian Lara.

And the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport's world governing body, have, through their code of conduct, laid down a procedure to be followed in such cases.

As a member of the ICC, Bermuda might be expected to abide by that code.

Sadly, it seems, the BCB have chosen to do otherwise.

Rather than handing Stovell an official reprimand ? punishment in accordance with the ICC's code of conduct ? the Board have told the player he's out of the game for four months as of the start of next season.

How utterly ridiculous, and more importantly unfair, is that?

Stovell was guilty of an ICC level one offence. Even had it been a level two offence ? showing serious dissent ? the maximum penalty under the ICC code is a two-match suspension.

Not only have the Board completely disregarded the ICC's code, they've potentially destroyed the career of one of the Island's brightest talents who's on the verge of breaking into the national team.

With the World Cup qualifying ICC Trophy competition just around the corner, what on earth could they be thinking?

How could they deny a player with so much talent the opportunity to compete in what, internationally, is Bermuda's most important tournament?

The suspicion, of course, is that BCB disciplinary committee chairman Gary Fray, a Warwick club stalwart, is exercising a personal vendetta. Currently a Warwick player, Stovell had indicated his intention to transfer to neighbours Southampton Rangers next season ? a move that wouldn't sit well with Fray.

As far as we know there's no evidence of any bias.

But given the circumstances of this case and the club conflict, one would have thought Fray and his committee would have been particularly careful in the way they handled it. In fact, in light of the conflict, Fray had no right to be a part of the hearing.

He and his committee have come up with a suspension which makes a complete mockery of the entire disciplinary procedure. In the past, players guilty of far more serious indiscretions have been handed much lighter sentences.

And what is particularly disturbing about the entire matter is the way in which the Board meted out this punishment and to three other players found guilty of offences on the same summer tour without informing the public.

To their great credit, Bermuda Football Association announce after every disciplinary committee meeting all of their findings ? detailing the offences committed and the punishment handed out. That's the way most responsible governing bodies the world over operate, in order that the clubs, the players and the fans are kept abreast of who is eligible to play and who is not. It's also a way of publicly humiliating the guilty players in the hope that they'll think twice before committing the same offence again.

Strangely, members of the cricket board don't think that way.

Unless their business reflects positively on the game, they have a habit of sweeping all other matters under the carpet. To hell with the public.

The findings of the disciplinary committee regarding Stovell, George O'Brien Jr, Treadwell Gibbons Jr and Shannon Raynor were only reported by this newspaper following interviews with those close to the BCB who wanted to remain anonymous. Not once has any executive of the BCB been forthcoming with information.

Asked this week about Stovell's punishment and how it conflicted with the ICC code of conduct, BCB president Reggie Pearman would only say: "Do you guys have the full report or know what he (Stovell) was charged with?"

To get that kind of information directly from the Board would be asking too much. Fortunately, however, we do have very reliable sources.

The Board believe it's their business and nobody else's.

What they clearly don't understand is that, much like our other national sport, cricket is the people's game. They administrate the sport on behalf of the players, officials and fans who all have a right to information pertaining to its well being.

If they think otherwise and they clearly do, cricket in Bermuda is in a sad state.