Cricket official who racially abused Scotland international slapped with lifetime ban

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A club official who racially abused former Scotland international Majid Haq and showed “no remorse” has been handed a lifetime ban from attending cricket matches in the country.Ronald McGregor was acting as scorer at Greenock Cricket Club when he called umpire Haq a “cheating P***” and then told him to his face it was a “factual term” when confronted over the abuse.Cricket Scotland referred the case to an independent disciplinary process led by a Conduct In Sport Panel, which issued a “lifetime ban from attending any matches under the auspices of Cricket Scotland”.McGregor, a well-known former player in Scottish club cricket, is also expected to be sentenced in court next month after previously admitting a charge of acting in a racially aggravated manner which caused or was intended to cause alarm or distress.The incident happened during a WDCU Premiership One match between home club Greenock and Stenhousemuir on August 12.

The panel stated that McGregor did not attend the disciplinary hearing or respond to an invitation to make any representations on his own behalf.A statement added: “In determining sanctions, the panel found no mitigating features in the incident, noted that Mr McGregor refused to engage in the disciplinary process, and in his only email response to Cricket Scotland exhibited no remorse or culpability.”Cricket Scotland chief executive Pete Fitzboydon said: “Racism, and those who demonstrate discriminatory behaviour, have no place in our sport.“Cricket can be one of the greatest forces for bringing communities together, and the vast majority is played without incident.

Unfortunately, a small minority of people continue to demonstrate their racist and bigoted views in our game. Any racist incident is one