Melbourne Stars leg-spinner Adam Zampa has been suspended for one match in the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL) for swearing during a game against Sydney Thunder on Tuesday (December 29), Cricket Australia (CA) said in a statement.
Zampa has also been penalised one suspension point and fined with A$2500 as per Level 1 offence under CA’s Code of Conduct.
On the last ball of the 16th over of the Thunder’s innings, skipper Callum Ferguson cut a short and wide delivery from Zampa to deep cover for a single. As the Thunder batsmen ran between the wickets, Zampa appeared to utter ‘f*** me’ which was caught by a stump mic.
The 28-year-old spin bowler will now miss Stars’ next BBL clash against Hobart Hurricanes on January 2. He has so far taken seven wickets in this summer’s BBL, which is the second-most by a Stars player and is his team’s highest wicket-tacker of all-time with 60 scalps.
Zampa has been a vital cog of Australia’s limited-overs side; he took at least one wicket in each of the Aussies’ six recent matches – three ODIs and three T20Is – against India.
Stars are currently placed at the fifth position in the points table, having won only two out of their total five games and one being washed out. Zampa has become captain Glenn Maxwell’s go-to-man who comes into bat during the death overs or as a Power Surge.
“He just keeps doing it… he just doesn’t disappoint ever. A lot of leg-spinners will go hunting for wickets at different stages, but he is just so stuck in his role, so focused and switched on about what the team needs. He just tries to do that as well for the team as he can.
“It’s a real credit to him. He puts his own performance aside, doesn’t worry about wickets, and tries to do his best for the team, and it’s brilliant for a leggy to do,” Maxwell had recently said about Zampa.
