Queens officials look at ways to fight a 12-month ban on fast bowler Jimmy Spargo

QUEENS Cricket Club is looking at ways to fight a 12-month ­bowling ban handed to their star all-rounder Jimmy Spargo.

Jimmy Spargo has been banned from bowling for a year. Picture: REGI VARGHESE

QUEENS Cricket Club is looking at ways to fight a 12-month ­bowling ban handed to their star all-rounder Jimmy Spargo.

Spargo, 30, who is playing for Queensland in the national ­Country Championships in ­Wollongong, was mentioned in an umpire’s report after a local Kookaburra Cup match before Christmas.

The report is believed to have been based on Spargo’s bowling action.

Queensland Cricket subsequently informed both Cricket Gold Coast and the Queens club that Spargo, a paceman, has been barred from bowling for a year.

Now Queens officials are ­preparing to defend their player, who was captain of a South Queensland representative side this ­season.

“At this point we’re in ­discussions with Queensland Cricket about what the (appeals) process is,” Queens official Peter Goodchap said.

Cricket Gold Coast chairman Dean Johnson said he was made aware of the bowling ban late in December.

“We received the documentation from Queensland Cricket ­before Christmas,” he said. “There was definitely an umpire’s report from a two-day Kookaburra Cup match, Palm Beach-Currumbin versus Queens, at Salk Oval, on December 10 and 17.”

The reporting umpire did not call Spargo during the game.

It is not the first time that Spargo’s right-arm bowling method has been under the microscope.

After moving to the Gold Coast Dolphins from Townsville about a decade ago he was the subject of an umpire’s report and had to be monitored by Queensland Cricket before he could bowl again.

He was cleared and not long after he joined Valley in Brisbane without any further issues.

The irony of the ban is that Spargo has had a bowl at the Country Championships.

Johnson said he believes that any ban in Queensland does not carry over to a national representative carnival under the control of Cricket Australia.

The Gold Coast Bulletin ­attempted to ­contact Spargo ­yesterday without success.