{"id":955374,"date":"2026-11-07T01:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T01:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/955374\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T01:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T01:24:14","slug":"clicky-ponting-banned-for-two-years-in-fallout-to-england-crickets-finger-clicking-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/955374\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Clicky Ponting\u2019 banned for two years in fallout to England cricket\u2019s finger clicking scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

England club cricketer<\/a> Brian Devine has been banned for two years following his finger clicking scandal that went viral in July<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old Devine became known as \u2018Clicky Ponting\u2019<\/a> when a video emerged of him clicking his fingers during games in an attempt to replicate the sound of the ball snicking the bat.<\/p>\n

While the cheating stunt did evidently fool some umpires (the team\u2019s wicket keeper took an astonishing 31 catches in eight consecutive matches, including eight in one innings), the vision sparked fierce backlash right across the globe.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Devine was accused of blatant cheating and his club, Saltburn CC, stood him down for the \u201cforeseeable future\u201d.<\/p>\n

British media reported on Friday that Devine has now been banned from cricket for two years, including all playing, coaching, umpiring, scoring and managing junior teams.<\/p>\n

\"LocalLocal cricketer Brian Devine has been banned for clicking his fingers during games in a bid to fool umpires. Credit: Frogbox<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just Devine that has copped a heavy whack with Saltburn\u2019s second XI, who were leading the North Yorkshire and South Durham League before the drama, automatically relegated into the third division.<\/p>\n

They will also start next season with a whopping 60-point deduction, ruling them out of a promotion next year.<\/p>\n

It is a heavy whack and the severity of the punishment has been questioned by some.<\/p>\n

For comparison, Steve Smith and David Warner were only banned for 12 months following the infamous sandpapergate Test in 2018.<\/p>\n

Be the first to know: Add 7NEWS as your preferred news source on Google\"Google<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0can\u2019t help thinking this length of ban is extremely harsh. The social media criticism has already been significant punishment.\u00a0A ban of two matches would have been understandable, but two years? And he can\u2019t even coach juniors when we need as many coaches as possible,\u201d one pundit said on social media.<\/p>\n

And another: \u201cThat seems a bit harsh, but I\u2019m not familiar with the full details of the story and background.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year controversial presenter Piers Morgan said Devine \u201cmust be the biggest cheat in cricket history\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long has he been doing this? How many batsmen\u2019s days has he ruined?\u201d Morgan asked.<\/p>\n

But Sam Perry and Ian Higgins from The Grade Cricketer believed the reaction was over the top and took aim at Morgan.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor over a decade we have celebrated and benefited from the low-rent charm of club cricket\u2019s rich, dark underbelly, alongside hundreds of thousands of people around the world,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it would appear some members at Saltburn CC have engaged in comically sharp practice. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut sadly, when f***wits like Piers Morgan declare to millions that \u2018Clicky Ponting must be the biggest cheat in cricket history\u2019, all proportionality is lost, and we feel a brotherly obligation to support the club in that context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, other fans think the long ban is appropriate. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy village club means everything to those of us involved – cricket, camaraderie, teas, the stupid sh** they get up to after the game. We all look forward to it all week and the least we expect is that nobody will cheat – it\u2019s not win at all costs. This guy has no place in it,\u201d one fan said.<\/p>\n

And another: \u201cWhole team should be banned.\u201d<\/p>\n

And another: \u201cWhat about his teammates ? Surely they were involved too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saltburn CC issued a statement following Devine\u2019s ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club fully participated in the disciplinary proceedings and accepts the decision of the appeal following the original decision from the League,\u201d Saltburn CC said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now focusing on preparations for the 2027 season.\u201d <\/p>\n

– With The West Australian<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018Clicky Ponting\u2019 suspended as \u2018distressing\u2019 situation emerges<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Retired great drops damning bomb on Australian cricket<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England club cricketer Brian Devine has been banned for two years following his finger clicking scandal that went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":955375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,1625,588,85,438546],"class_list":["post-955374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-lifestyle","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-your-feed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/955375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}