Christian suspended by South Australia

The allrounder Daniel Christian has been suspended by South Australia for this week's Sheffield Shield match against Victoria after three incidents in which he has damaged change rooms following his dismissal in the past few weeks. Christian, who is a regular in Australia's one-day and Twenty20 teams, has been told to spend some time away from state cricket following the outbursts, which have occurred at Adelaide Oval, Bellerive and the WACA.

"While playing against the Tasmanian Tigers at Adelaide Oval, Daniel was given a verbal warning for damaging the change rooms after he was dismissed," Jamie Cox, the SACA director of cricket, said. "This ill-disciplined behaviour post-dismissal occurred again in Hobart, where the Blundstone Arena change rooms were also damaged, and at that time Daniel was given a written warning and was fined his match fee.

"On both occasions he has apologized and paid for the cost of repairs. Disappointingly, despite these two prior warnings, a similar incident occurred after a dismissal in Perth for a third consecutive time. Whilst in isolation none of these incidents are hanging offences, the cumulative effect has seen this action as necessary. Everyone experiences pressure and disappointment at work, but that's not an excuse for bad-tempered behaviour that includes damaging property.

"Daniel has now been suspended from this round of the Sheffield Shield against the Victorian Bushrangers in Melbourne. Daniel has an obligation to himself, his team-mates and to cricket to uphold the values and standards of our team and the game. First-class cricket is an emotional game; however, everyone experiences pressure at work. Daniel's repeated inability to curb his behaviour after he is dismissed leads us to believe that some time away from state cricket will be of benefit to him."

Christian, 29, will train with the Emerging Redbacks squad while away from the senior side and will be available to play grade cricket this weekend. So far this Shield season, Christian has made 173 runs at an average of 21.62 from four appearances, and he has collected nine wickets at an average of 41.44. In December last year, Christian was part of Australia's Test squad for their series against New Zealand but he did not make his debut.

South Australia Sheffield Shield squad Phillip Hughes, Sam Raphael, Michael Klinger, Callum Ferguson, Travis Head, Alex Ross, Tim Ludeman (wk), Johan Botha (capt), Joe Mennie, Kane Richardson, Chadd Sayers, Gary Putland.