Twenty20 joy for Glamorgan

7:27pm Monday 14th July 2008

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Glamorgan were celebrating tonight having replaced Yorkshire in the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 Cup.

The Swalec Stadium was full of smiles as the white rose county failed to fully overturn their punishment at an appeal in Taunton.

Yorkshire were effectively thrown out of the tournament after fielding the ineligible teenager Azeem Rafiq in a North Division game against Nottinghamshire last month.

They then appealed after arguing that their punishment was 'manifestly disproportionate' to their offence and although the nine-wicket victory at Trent Bridge now stands, they have been deducted two points.

The original decision awarded those two points to Nottinghamshire but the alteration means that Glamorgan will now progress as one of the best third-placed teams.

"We've got what we deserved,'' Glamorgan chairman Paul Russell said.

Glamorgan and Yorkshire both finished on 10 points but the Welsh county's superior net run rate means they progress to a yet-to-be-scheduled last-eight tie against Durham at Chester-le-Street.

Nottinghamshire subsequently finished on nine points and their chief executive Derek Brewer was magnanimous after coming out of the appeal hearing.

"We are disappointed but we always said we would abide by the ECB decision," Brewer said.

"We will move forward.'' Rafiq, 17, had not been registered as a first-teamer with the ECB by Yorkshire, and it then emerged, despite captaining England at under-15 level, he did not hold a British passport.

The ECB's discipline commission panel met at Old Trafford last Thursday and ruled Yorkshire would be excluded from the remainder of this season's competition.

Yorkshire's quarter-final against Durham on Monday was postponed at the ECB's request minutes before the scheduled start as doubts over Rafiq's status surfaced.