A SUBURBAN cricket umpire facing stalking charges may be barred from umpiring in Victoria for life after he hacked into an official cricket website.
John Kristy Parker, 56, was given the flick after he was found guilty of altering umpire ratings on the My Cricket website, potentially giving himself a better chance of presiding over the finals.
Dandenong District Cricket Association secretary, Ray Nicholls, said their verdict has now been passed on to state authorities and he didn't expect Mr Parker to umpire again.
"On the balance of probability and on the evidence we had he was found guilty,'' Mr Nicholls said.
This information was also forwarded to the governing cricket body for metropolitan Victoria.
We would expect that he not be able to umpire in any club in Victoria.''
The ban comes despite Mr Parker's claims he is innocent.
Mr Parker, who umpired under the name of John Kristy, was a respected umpire in the Dandenong area and there were no problems with his umpiring abilities, according to the DDCA.
As an association we had no issue with him as far as his umpiring, Mr Nicholls said.
Mr Parker can still appeal the decision, but if that fails, the Victorian Metropolitan Cricket Union will advise leagues state wide of the issue.
If they don't (appeal) or the decision is upheld we would then recommend state wide they not be able to umpire,'' said union president, Kevin Noy.
Union administrator, Rodney Patterson, said he had not received an appeal request by yesterday, but Mr Parker had two weeks from when the decision was handed down, effectively meaning he has until Monday to launch action disputing the DDCA decision.
In an unrelated matter Mr Parker is also facing charges including stalking and handling and receiving stolen goods.
He will appear before the Dandenong Magistrates' Court on April 4.
Mr Parker yesterday has not yet returned calls from the Herald Sun."
