The storm over one of Newcastle's major cricket competitions is continuing to grow, with a judiciary suspending a board member from the game for 18 months and handing him a life ban from holding administrative positions, during a hearing in his absence on Sunday.
And within 24-hours of Daniel Saunders' suspension, another former board member received a summons to appear at a hearing on a second charge, despite being rubbed out of the game for two years in August.
It comes amid a bitter feud within the Newcastle City and Suburban Cricket Association that has involved claims of financial mismanagement, bullying and a lack of transparency.
Several members have been banned or called before the judiciary to answer off-field charges in recent months.
They say they have been targeted for trying to get answers about the association's spending - something NCSCA president Phil Northey has denied.
Mr Saunders said he would appeal his suspension.
He was banned over his involvement in a private - but leaked - Facebook conversation with three other association members in March in which derogatory comments were allegedly made about a board member.
Mr Saunders was among three new board members appointed in August who forced the association's first elections in more than two decades. He is one of a handful who have been agitating for increased transparency.
Read more:
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- Newcastle cricket crisis deepens as team forced to pull up stumps
- Desperate plea to call stumps on cricket feud as two more to face disciplinary hearings
- Cricket feud worsens as another board member called before judiciary
On Monday, former board member Roy Capitao received a summons for a judiciary hearing next week over his involvement in the same Facebook conversation that prompted Mr Saunders' ban.
The hearing will take place despite Mr Capitao being suspended in August for allegedly accessing and sharing a document containing board members' fuel expense claims - which he denies doing.
Mr Capitao said board members had taken a copy of the Facebook chat to his employer on three occasions in an effort to tarnish his name.
"They're trying to get rid of everyone so basically there's no-one there to question them," he said.
"I'm not under their jurisdiction. I've been banned - I've got no club - now they're trying to suspend me for something that happened back in March."
The Newcastle Herald reported previously that, before 2019, the volunteer organisation had not conducted a financial audit since 2004 despite its constitution requiring one annually.
When asked why Mr Capitao would face a hearing while already serving a lengthy ban, Mr Northey said he had been "charged under the association's media policy, code of behaviour".
"In the next week or two this association will be releasing all documentation on what has transpired on these matters," he said in an email to the Herald.
