Australian cricket authorities on Friday banned Twenty20 star Luke Pomersbach from playing until at least January after he pleaded guilty to multiple charges including assaulting a police officer.
Australian cricket authorities on Friday banned Twenty20 star Luke Pomersbach from playing until at least January after he pleaded guilty to multiple charges including assaulting a police officer.
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The attacking middle-order batsman, who plays for Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League, apologised in court for a drunken rampage that led to him being arrested by police in Perth on Sunday.
The 24-year-old, was fined $3,000 by the court, lost his driver's licence for six months and was ordered to pay more than $17,000 for the damages he caused.
Pomersbach pleaded guilty to a total of six charges that also included pushing a policeman into a window at his Perth home, breaking the glass and causing minor injuries, as he resisted arrest over a hit-and-run road incident.
Following the court ruling, the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) imposed further penalties on Pomersbach.
The WACA said he would be banned from representing Western Australia in any form of cricket until the end of the 2010-11 season, but may be eligible to play state cricket from January 1 next year if he fulfils counselling criteria.
He would also be fined a total of $10,000, half of which may be suspended subject to the medical and counselling conditions imposed on Pomersbach, it said.
WACA said the penalties were set in consultation with Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association, and had been agreed to by Pomersbach and his management.
"In cricket terms, sporting terms, it's certainly a harsh penalty but it needed to be, this was a very serious incident," WACA chief executive Graeme Wood told reporters on Friday.
"It's really up to Luke now and the conditions that have been set that he follows those strictly.
"There's a suspended sentence now hanging over his head in regard to 2010-11.
"If he doesn't abide by the conditions, we would certainly look very seriously at terminating his contract."
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