Marcus Stoinis was recently fined $7500 for uttering a slur to Melbourne Renegades’ fast bowler Kane Richardson during a BBL clash between the two sides on Sunday. The Melbourne Stars bowler was charged with ‘personal abuse’ of Kane Richardson under Cricket Australia’s code of conduct and he succumbed to his mistake.
The remark had come when Stoinis was batting. During the hearing, Stoinis accepted the level-two charge and his penalty, leaving the BBL’s leading run-scorer free to play in the Stars’ clash with Sydney Thunder on Wednesday.
Though the exact words uttered by Stoinis are not known yet, Fairfax media have reportedly revealed that the all-rounder called Richardson a “Fa**ot”. Simon Katich opined that the monetary penalty isn’t enough and Cricket Australia should give instant bans for uttering such words.
“I’m not sure a financial punishment is the right way of going about it, given we’ve had a couple of instances of this throughout the summer now. It’s something they’d be keen to stamp out. I’m not sure a financial penalty is that significant,” Katich was quoted as saying by SEN.
Meanwhile, Marcus Stoinis admitted that he crossed the line. “I realized immediately I was in the wrong and I apologize to Kane and to the umpires. I did the wrong thing and accept responsibility for my actions. The standards are there for a reason and I accept the penalty,” Stoinis had said.
Cricket Australia’s head of integrity Sean Carroll said that such behavior should be met with a much severer punishment. “The behavior in this matter falls short of the standards we expect and we have acted accordingly. There is no place for it in the game.”
Meanwhile, Michael Hussey hopes that the matter is soon forgiven and forgotten. “All I know is Marcus is really apologetic, he was actually distraught after the game,” Hussey told SEN. “He has spoken to Kane and it’s been done with now and we hopefully can just move on.”
