This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

Melbourne Stars allrounder Marcus Stoinis has been fined $7,500 but avoided suspension for a homophobic slur during Saturday evening’s Big Bash League derby against the Melbourne Renegades. Stoinis fronted a hearing after he guided the Stars to victory, having been charged with ‘personal abuse’ of Kane Richardson under Cricket Australia’s code of conduct.

The remark, which came when Stoinis was batting, was directed at his World Cup teammate and friend Richardson. Stoinis accepted the level-two charge and his penalty, leaving the BBL’s leading run scorer free to play in the Stars’ clash with Sydney Thunder on Wednesday.

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The fine comes after James Pattinson was banned from the opening Test of the summer for a homophobic slur that attracted the same grade-two charge. However, in that instance it was Pattinson’s third offence, while this marks Stoinis’s first indiscretion.

Former Test opener Simon Katich was concerned the punishment was too lenient. “I’m not sure a financial punishment is the right way of going about it, given we’ve had a couple of instances of this throughout the summer now,” Katich said on SEN radio. “It’s something they’d be pretty keen to stamp out.

“I’m not sure a financial penalty in this day and age, when players are very well looked after, is that significant.”

Stoinis, who was believed to be swapping barbs with Richardson prior to crossing the line, suggested in a statement he “got caught in the moment and took it too far”.

“I realised immediately I was in the wrong and I apologise to Kane and to the umpires,” he said. “I did the wrong thing and accept responsibility for my actions. The standards are there for a reason and I accept the penalty.”

Stoinis hit an unbeaten 68 from 55 balls in the win and immediately spoke to umpires at the end of the match.

“The behaviour in this matter falls short of the standards we expect and we have acted accordingly,” Cricket Australia’s head of integrity Sean Carroll said. “There is no place for it in the game.”