Steve O’Keefe has been hit with a $ 20,000 fine
STEPHEN O’Keefe will play no part in this year’s Matador Cup, with Cricket New South Wales coming down hard on the spinner for his drunken conduct at the after-party for the state’s end-of-season awards.
On top of being fined $ 20,000 by Cricket Australia for making “highly inappropriate comments while under the influence of alcohol” after the Steve Waugh Medal, O’Keefe will not be considered for selection by the Blues in this year’s domestic one-day tournament.
This is his second offence under CA’s code of behaviour in the past 18 months, hence the severity of Cricket NSW and CA’s sanctions.
As O’Keefe accepted CA’s proposed sanction, no hearing was required.
“At an official Cricket NSW function, I became intoxicated and made highly inappropriate comments,” said O’Keefe, who will also undergo further counselling.
“There is no excuse for this and I take full responsibility and offer an unconditional apology.
“I accept the sanctions imposed by Cricket Australia and Cricket NSW and welcome the chance to receive specialist counselling.
“I have a big challenge ahead and I am determined to meet it with actions, not just words.
“To all of the members of the cricket family I love and respect so much, again, apologies for letting you down.”
Australia’s Steve O’Keefe has been hit with a second fine for drunken behaviour inside 12 months.Source:AP
O’Keefe was hit with a $ 10,000 fine by the national body in August after being issued an Infringement Notice by NSW police for offensive behaviour, and being an excluded person remaining in the vicinity of licensed premises.
On that occasion O’Keefe was reprimanded following an incident outside a Manly pub, which he’d been rejected from — leading to the police getting involved.
The officer landed the most stinging sledge of O’Keefe’s career: “you’re just a s**t state cricketer,” to which O’Keefe replied “I’m not a s**t state cricketer — I’m a s**t Australian cricketer”, according to The Australian.
The popular spinner had been sidelined with a hamstring injury suffered while on tour in Sri Lanka at the time, but managed to fight his way back into the Test set-up to the point where he earned a recall for the summer-closing Test win over Pakistan at the SCG in January.
The 32-year-old was able to rebound, in part, because of a decision to steer clear of alcohol — which he kept up until Christmas last year.
O’Keefe then played a starring role during Australia’s tour of India, taking career-best match figures of 12-70 during the opening Test victory in Pune.
O’Keefe has no English country or Indian Premier League contract and was not considered a frontrunner to be included in Australia’s squad for June’s Champions Trophy one-day tournament being held in the UK.
As such, this is very much his off-season — but that hasn’t lessened Cricket NSW’s disappointment.
“Stephen has not upheld the standards expected of a NSW and Australian cricketer in the aftermath of the India tour where he proudly represented his state and country,” Cricket NSW CEO Andrew Jones said.
“As this is his second recent offence we believe a strong penalty is appropriate. At Cricket NSW, we want all our people to achieve their potential on and off the field and Stephen needs to refocus himself on that task.”
Originally published as O’Keefe fined, banned after drunken rant
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