Two JCT600 Bradford League players have received lengthy bans after an incident in another league in which an umpire was allegedly assaulted.

Naeem Ashraf, a member of Baildon’s championship-winning side and a former player at Farsley and Bowling Old Lane, has been suspended for five years, while East Bierley’s Kez Ahmed has been banned for three years, of which two years are suspended.

Wicketkeeper Waleed Ditta, who played for Scholes in the Central Yorkshire League, has also been handed a five-year ban, while Pudsey Congs’ Adam Patel, who was found guilty of a lower-grade offence, has been suspended for two weeks.

The incident took place on Sunday, May 31 at Rotherham Phoenix Cricket Club between hosts Sheffield Alliance and Bradford-based Shimla in the Quaid e Azam Sunday League.

Umpire Matthew Lowson, 19, was verbally abused and allegedly hit by a player and struck with a stump.

Reports at the time said spectators were shocked by what they had seen and the police were also called.

The match was abandoned and some of the Bradford team were stopped on the way home on a slip road to the M1 for an identity parade but the police later dropped the charges.

The Quaid e Azam League investigated the incidents and allegations and gave lengthy bans to four players, including a lifetime ban for one player.

Shimla were thrown out of the league but the sentences to the players were the subject of an appeal – which has now been heard – after they called in lawyers.

All the bans will take affect from April 1 next year, which means that Patel will be clear to play before the Bradford League season starts on April 17.

Baildon’s secretary Don Butterfield said of Ashraf’s ban: “It is a sad blow to the club but these things happen.”

Mohammed Amir Majid, vice-chairman of the Quaid e Azam League, said: “We are pleased that the League’s full council have backed our decisions.

“Things were going on for so long that we were getting worried about what was happening but they were just getting all the facts together.”