Mascarenhas banned after Twitter rant

Dimitri Mascarenhas will miss the start of the 2011 English season as a punishment for his foul-mouthed outburst on micro-blogging site Twitter against England selection supremo Geoff Miller.

The Hampshire captain pleaded guilty to breaching England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) directives by making a personal attack on Miller and also to bringing the game into disrepute, at a disciplinary hearing here on Wednesday.

Mascarenhas had already been fined 1,000 pounds (1,200 euros) by Hampshire.

An ECB disciplinary panel ordered Mascarenhas to be suspended from all cricket under ECB jurisdiction for a period of 14 days from the first day of his county's competitive county cricket programme in 2011, and also ordered him to pay 500 pounds towards the costs of the hearing.

Earlier this month, England batsman Kevin Pietersen was fined an undisclosed amount for a Twitter outburst following his omission from the one-day squad currently involved in a series against Pakistan.