Shannon Gabriel facing ban over alleged homophobic comments to Joe Root as ICC take hard line on personal abuse

Shannon Gabriel is facing the prospect of a charge from the International Cricket Council for alleged homophobic comments to England captain Joe Root as the game’s governing body looks to take a hard stance against personal abuse on the field.

ICC officials in Dubai woke up this morning to reports of the alleged incident involving Gabriel during the third Test in St Lucia and after reviewing the footage are considering taking action with a charge likely by the end of play today.

The stump microphone allegedly picked up Root responding to taunts from Gabriel by saying: “Don’t use it as an insult, there is nothing wrong with being gay.”

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At this stage no audio of what Gabriel said has emerged but he was spoken to by the on-field umpires at the time. At the close of play yesterday it appeared the match officials were satisfied it had been dealt with on the field and no charges were likely but that was before the ICC’s senior executives had a chance to review the incident.

The on-field umpires have 24 hours from the incident occurring to lay a charge while the match referee, New Zealand’s Jeff Crowe, has 48 hours from when it was brought to his attention.

Dave Richardson, the ICC’s chief executive, has seven days to charge a player and he is considering taking action after the Pakistan captain, Sarfraz Ahmed, was banned last week for four matches after allegedly using racist language in a one-day international against South Africa.

The ICC will want to be consistent and Richardson has long been critical of on-field sledging. Last year the ICC allowed the broadcasters to turn up the volume on stump microphones in a bid to make players more careful about the kind of language used on the field.

Gabriel could face a charge under article 2.13 of the ICC’s code of conduct which covers ‘personal abuse of a player, player support personnel, umpire or match official.’ The offence comes under level two or three of the ICC’s code. Level two offences are punishable by 50-100 per cent match fee fine and up to a maximum of two suspension penalty points on a player’s record which equates to one Test match or two one-dayers/T20s.

Level three is much more serious and is punishable by four to 12 suspension points for the most serious offence meaning a player can be suspended for up to six matches (three Tests or six limited-overs games).

Anti-homophobia campaigners applauded Root's comments. Kirsty Clarke, director of sport at Stonewall, said in a statement sent to Telegraph Sport: “Tackling offensive language is a crucial part of helping LGBT people feel welcome in sport. Language is really influential and it’s great Joe Root stepped up to challenge abusive comments... The more players, fans, clubs and organisations that stand up for equality in sport, the sooner we kick discrimination out and make sport everyone’s game.”