LONDON — Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale has been banned for two more games and ordered to attend an anger management course for verbally abusing South Africa batsman Ashwell Prince in a county match a month ago.
Gale had already served a mandatory two-match ban after the England and Wales Cricket Board ruled his outburst, including calling Prince a "Kolpak," could be perceived as discriminatory.
But because the comment could also be considered racial, the ECB’s Cricket Discipline Commission ordered a hearing. However, that was waived when all the parties agreed on Friday that Gale should miss two more games at the start of the 2015 season, and seek counselling for anger management.
The word "Kolpak" references Maros Kolpak, a Slovakian handball player, who set in motion a legal precedent allowing foreign-born cricketers to play in England under European Union laws.
In a statement, the ECB said, Gale "acknowledges and deeply regrets that the words he used caused any offence and, in particular, that they could have caused offence as a result of the reference to the nationality of the person to whom they were made."