Aussie spinner Stephen O'Keefe fined and ordered to undergo counselling
Friday 7 April 2017 08:08, UK
Test bowler Stephen O'Keefe has been ordered to undergo counselling by Cricket Australia, who also fined the spinner 20,000 Australian dollars following an incident at an awards ceremony in Sydney.
The 32-year-old made 'highly inappropriate comments' while intoxicated at a Sydney hotel which was his second alcohol-related offence in nine months.
To make matters worse for the spinner, who has played eight Tests, his state team New South Wales have banned him from playing in Australia's domestic one-day competition next season.
Last August, O'Keefe was fined A$7,500 for misbehaving while under the influence of alcohol at a Sydney pub.
Since then, it was reported that he had quit alcohol and returned to the Test side for the series in India where he took 19 wickets in four matches.
Cricket Australia team performance general manager Pat Howard said: "There is no time or place for unacceptable behaviour from any of our players in Australian cricket.
"We continue to take a zero-tolerance approach to this and we're extremely disappointed this situation occurred, particularly on the back of a previous incident, and it now overshadows Stephen's on field performance on the recent tour of India."
O'Keefe accepted the fine and will undergo specialist counselling, and the Malaysia-born player said: "At an official Cricket NSW function I became intoxicated and made highly inappropriate comments.
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"There is no excuse for this and I take full responsibility and offer an unconditional apology.
"I have a big challenge ahead and I am determined to meet it with actions, not just words."
The chief executive of New South Wales Cricket, Andrew Jones, added: "As this is his second recent offence we believe a strong penalty is appropriate.
There is no excuse for this and I take full responsibility and offer an unconditional apology.
"At Cricket NSW, we want all our people to achieve their potential, on and off the field, and Stephen needs to refocus himself on that task."
