HAMPSHIRE director of cricket Giles White has defended the county's disciplinary procedure after being punished by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The ECB's disciplinary panel handed out a points deduction, which is suspended for a year, and fined Hampshire £4,000 after the county accrued five fixed penalty offences in 12 months.

Hampshire will be deducted 16 LV= County Championship points or two points in the NatWest T20 or Royal London One-Day Cup, if they are handed another fixed penalty in the next 12 months.

A statement read: "The panel, made up of Ricky Needham, Mike Smith and Tim O'Gorman, was concerned insufficient measures had been taken by Hampshire to proactively address their ongoing responsibility to maintain disciplinary standards with players."

But White has defended Hampshire's disciplinary procedure.

He said: "We have measures in place, we sit down with the players and there is a monetary fines process in place as well.

“The club prides itself on playing in the correct manner and over the years, certainly since I’ve been in charge, the feedback from umpires has been very positive about the way the boys play as a group.

“Unfortunately we’ve slipped up on occasions. In the heat of the moment we’ve let ourselves down in isolated incidents. That’s not unacceptable, we’ve got to cut that out and the boys know that.

“We’ll take the punishment and move on.”

The panel met after Owais Shah was reported by the umpires and reprimanded for a Level One breach of the ECB’s Discipline code (using language that is obscene, offensive or insulting and/or making an obscene gesture), after beign caught on a stump microphone swearing as he hit a six in the televised T20 win against Middlesex at The Ageas Bowl earlier this month.

That came within a month of Michael Carberry  being penalised for his reactiion to his dismissal in the LV County Championship defeat against Yorkshire at Headingley at the beginning of May.

The other three offences occurred last season.

All-rounder Matt Coles received two of the other four penalties in the space of a few weeks before his return to Kent.

He was reported for a Level 2 breach (throwing the ball at or near a player, umpire or official in an inappropriate and dangerous manner) during a Championship win against Leicestershire in September, soon after a Level 1 misdemeanour, while Adam Wheater was suspended for two matches last August for a Level Two offence in the Royal London One-Day Cup.