WARWICKSHIRE were last night handed an eight point deduction for their ‘poor’ Edgbaston pitch in the LV= County Championship Division One derby with Worcestershire.

The wicket at the Bears home was given the rating by an ECB Pitch Panel comprising David Hughes and Tony Pigott (Pitch Liaison Officers).

After interviewing the umpires, the captain and coach of both teams and the Warwickshire head groundsman, the panel determined that the pitch had demonstrated excessive unevenness of bounce and should therefore be rated “poor”.

The Edgbaston wicket had been a cause of concern throughout the match and yesterday Worcestershire’s Vikram Solanki was struck on the head from a delivery that had reared up from Naqaash Tahir and the former captain was sent to hospital for a precautionary X-ray and it is unclear whether he will return to bat today after retiring hurt without scoring.

Warwickshire have until this evening to launch an appeal if they choose to do so.