Praveen suspended from Vijay Hazare Trophy

Praveen Kumar, the India seamer, has been suspended for the one-day zonal league, the preliminary stage of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The decision comes days after he was fined 100% of his match fees for a serious breach of the players' code of conduct during a Corporate Trophy match last week.

"Praveen Kumar has been issued a show cause notice by the Board," BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale said in a statement on Sunday. "He has been suspended from participating in the forthcoming inter-state Vijay Hazare Trophy matches."

Though the BCCI, in its trademark style, didn't explain the reason for issuing the notice to Praveen, a BCCI insider confirmed that the suspension is following "the Corporate Trophy incident".

Praveen had verbally abused Income Tax batsman Ajitesh Argal while playing for Oil and Natural Gas Limited in Raipur on February 4. Since it was Praveen's second serious offence, including a Level Four offence, match referee Dhananjay Singh had not only fined Praveen his entire match fee but had also referred the matter to the BCCI.

"Since Praveen is a centrally contracted player, such behaviour, if ignored, will send out wrong signals to the aspiring cricketers," a BCCI official, who did not want to be named, told ESPNcricinfo. "Depending on his reply, it will be decided whether the matter will be pursued further." It was understood that Praveen has been asked to submit his reply within seven days.

Praveen had been expected to continue his comeback bid during the zonal one-dayers after missing most of UP's Ranji Trophy campaign due to a recurrence of a tennis elbow injury. However, his suspension from the Central Zone league, to be played in Indore from February 14 to 20, will not only delay an assessment of his recovery from the injury but will also be a blow to UP's hopes for making it to the knockouts. The top two teams from each zone qualify for the national knockouts.