Durham have been docked 10 points in the County Championship after overseas Australia batter Nic Maddinson admitted a breach of ECB Directives 3.2 and 3.3, his bat having failed a bat-gauge test.

Maddinson, who has played three Tests for Australia, used a bat which failed a bat-gauge test during Durham’s County Championship fixture against Derbyshire in early September. Maddinson’s bat was reportedly tested by umpire Hassan Adnan early on in his first innings against Derbyshire where it was deemed that it did not meet the relevant regulations.

This is not the first time this season that a county cricketer has fallen foul of the ECB’s bat regulations. Derbyshire were docked two points in the Royal London One-Day Cup after all-rounder Matt McKiernan was found to have breached the same regulations that Maddinson had. The penalty for Durham initially appears more severe but the punishments vary depending on the number of points on offer in each competition. In the County Championship, a victory gains a team 16 points. In the One-Day Cup, a win is worth two points.

The ECB’s County Championship playing conditions state that all bats used in the competition must be ‘Type A’ bats. Type A bats are those that conform to a set of criteria outlined in Law 5 of the MCC’s Laws.

This is not the first time in recent years that Durham have been docked points in the County Championship. At the end of the 2016 season, Durham were relegated from Division One and handed a 48-point penalty as a punishment for their financial problems.