Sussex have been docked 24 points for this year's Bob Willis Trophy after the club admitted the application of hand sanitiser to the ball by Mitchell Claydon had brought the game into disrepute.
Claydon was handed a nine-match ban after the incident, which took place in a game against Middlesex at Radlett in August, came to light. The ECB's Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) has now punished Sussex for Claydon's actions - the deduction leaving them on 12 points and seeing them drop from fifth to sixth in the South Group.
A CDC Panel, chaired by Mark Milliken-Smith QC, met last Thursday and imposed the sanction after deciding the club had breached ECB directives 3.3 and 3.7:
"3.3 - No participant may conduct themself in a manner or do any act or omission at any time which is improper or which may be prejudicial to the interests of cricket or which may bring the ECB, the game of cricket or any cricketer or group of cricketers into disrepute.
"3.7 - Contravention of the Bob Willis Trophy Playing Conditions 5 or 41.2 … shall be regarded as (i) unfair and improper conduct; and (ii) conduct prejudicial to the interests of cricket and likely to bring the game into disrepute."
Claydon had figures of 3 for 23 and 0 for 41 in the match, which Sussex lost by five wickets, before the club announced that he had been omitted from their next game. He then featured in two Vitality Blast fixtures, but missed the quarter-final defeat against Lancashire, after which his ball-tampering ban was confirmed.