Former Barkisland seamer Tinashe Panyangara has been dropped from the Zimbabwe squad for the remainder of the triangular one-day series they are hosting for sharing an intimidating video of Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson with his teammates.
Zimbabwe Cricket have confirmed that Panyangara – who played for the Woodfield club in the Drakes Huddersfield League in 2--7 and 2008 – has been “expelled” and fined one match fee because of his “disruptive” behaviour in the build-up to the first game of the tournament against the Australians in Harare.
They gave no further details, but have clearly not seen the funny side.
It has emerged that Panyangara was disciplined because on Sunday he sent teammates a highlights package of Johnson from the Ashes series in Australia from Cricket Australia’s YouTube channel.
In the video, Johnson is seen taking wickets but also terrorising England’s batsmen with short deliveries.
Although the message was intended as a joke to Zimbabwe’s batsmen, their coach Stephen Mangongo and chief selector Givemore Makoni were not impressed.
Panyangara, 28, who had figures of none for 68 in seven overs as Zimbabwe lost to Australia by 198 runs on Monday, will now train with the Zimbabwe A squad that is preparing for a tour of Bangladesh next month.
