Mascarenhas fined for Twitter outburst (From Daily Echo)

Mascarenhas fined for Twitter outburst

4:00pm Monday 6th September 2010 in

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Hampshire captain Dimitri Mascarenhas has apologised and been fined £1,000 for his foul-mouthed Twitter outburst.

The 32-year-old blasted England's national selector Geoff Miller in two separate posts on his Twitter page on Sunday night - less than a week after Kevin Pietersen tweeted his anger following his omission from England's Twenty20 and one-day squads.

Mascarenhas tweeted: "Geoff miller is a complete k**b. He had no clue what he is doing. Fing p***k," he is said to have posted.

"Chairman of selectors came to Liverpool and didn't even come and say hi... what a p***k. Doesn't take much to say hello, does it."

Mascarenhas, who been unavailable all season with the Achilles injury he suffered while playing in the Indian Premier League, only joined Twitter last week, when he was at Liverpool to watch Hampshire's tense defeat against Lancashire.

In an official Hampshire statement, he said: "I realise that my actions were stupid and irresponsible and I regret any offence I may have caused.

“I apologise specifically to Geoff Miller who has always treated me fairly. I also apologise to Hampshire Cricket whom I feel I have let down.

"This was a silly, late-night conversation that got out of control and doesn’t reflect my true views on Mr Miller.

“I have learnt a great deal about the dangers of social networking sites and encourage other players to think carefully before signing up to them.”

Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove said: "Having had the incident brought to my attention by the ECB yesterday, I discussed the circumstances overnight with team manager, Giles White.

"As a result, I met with Dimitri Mascarenhas today and formally censured him, imposing a fine of £1000.

"The fine has been set at this high level as I feel there is little point in imposing a ban, given the long-term nature of his injury.

“In coming to this conclusion I have taken into consideration Dimi’s previous exemplary record.

"However, as club captain he understands that his actions carry more responsibility than others.

“Hampshire Cricket regrets the entire incident which, although thoroughly out of character for Dimitri Mascarenhas, breaches the Club’s Code of Conduct.

"Further, it will be warning all players about the dangers of conducting personal or private dialogue on publicly-available media.”

Meanwhile, Pietersen has been given an undisclosed fine by the ECB, having already apologised for the following tweet: "Yep.. Done for rest of summer!! Man of the World Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too.. It's a f*** up!! Surrey have signed me for l ...(sic)."