Samuels found guilty of bookmaker link

By Simon Evans

MIAMI (Reuters) - West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels has been provisionally suspended after he was been found guilty of breaching regulations after a probe into allegations of links with a bookmaker, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said on Monday.

Samuels, 27, is now out of the game under a mandatory two-year ban which is effective from May 9 unless the International Cricket Council (ICC) offers him a reprieve.

"It is up to the ICC now," said Tony Deyal, head of communications for the WICB.

"They reserve the right to review and if necessary re-open it. It is up to them and they will now take it to their executive," he said, adding that Samuels was however out of the first test against Australia which starts on May 22 in Kingston, Jamaica.

The WICB said their disciplinary committee had found that Samuels had breached ICC Rules of Conduct 4 in that he "received money, benefit or other reward which could bring him or the game of cricket into disrepute."

The committee looked into charges that Jamaican Samuels passed on team information to a bookmaker during a one-day series in India in January 2007.

"They looked at the circumstances -- he did take the money but there was no proof that there was a link, that he provided information," said Deyal.

On that basis, a second charge that Samuels had "directly or indirectly... engaged in conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game," was dismissed, added Deyal.