Man fined £400 for racial abuse of cricket umpire Majid Haq

Scottish cricketer, Majid Haq, umpired the cricket match in Greenock

A man who racially abused a former Scotland cricket international has been fined £400.

Majid Haq was acting as an umpire for a game at Greenock Cricket Club on August 12 when faced a racial a slur from club official Ronald McGregor.

The judge told him he would have imposed a £600 fine but reduced it in recognition of his early guilty plea.

McGregor, 64, was also handed a lifetime ban on attending matches by Cricket Scotland earlier this month.

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Sheriff Neil Kinnear said he recognised it was a one-off incident and that McGregor, from Greenock, has offered to apologise to Mr Haq.

"At this cricket match you made a racial slur in relation to the umpire of a type which is completely unacceptable," Mr Kinnear said.

"You are no doubt aware of the public outrage that such comments cause.

"They are never acceptable in society so I have to mark this with a significant financial penalty."

The match was held at Greenock Cricket Club

Mr McGregor was acting as scorer on the day of the incident, during a WDCU Premiership One match between Greenock and Stenhousemuir.

Aidan Gallagher, representing McGregor, told the court the incident was "out of character" for his client, who offered a "sincere apology" for what he said.

"He had been involved with Cricket Scotland for many years and that's now at an end, he will have no further involvement in cricket."

Greenock Cricket Club issued an apology to Mr Haq and said it "deplores any such conduct".

Previous allegations from Mr Haq and another former international, Qasim Sheikh, led to an independent review which last year which concluded the governance and leadership practices of Cricket Scotland were institutionally racist.

Work has been undertaken to address the findings and actions which were recommended by the Changing The Boundaries report.