A PLAYER who gave a false name and personal details has seen Dunfermline docked 27 points by the East Cricket League and put their place in Division One in jeopardy.

'Shaheed Mehmood' played against Marchmont, Heriot's seconds and Edinburgh Accies for the McKane Park side, with all Dunfermline's 27 points picked up in the games wiped from the record.

Mehmood hit 143 in the success away to Accies and collected three wickets but the performance attracted the attention of league officials who asked the club for personal details of the player.

When they lodged what he had told them it eventually became apparent that his name was actually Muhammad Shaheed and he had played a first-class cricket match in Pakistan before Christmas.

Club president Nancy Gibson was shocked by the revelation and told Press Sport, "Our player/coach, Waqas Ahmed, had met the guy by chance in Edinburgh and he said that he was looking to play the odd game of cricket.

"Aware of the necessary criteria that had to be met, Waqas asked him to fill out a piece of paper giving all his details.

"These seemed to be fair enough at the time but he had been anything but frank with us.

"We tried to verify what he had given and from our enquiries he seemed to be a legal player."

The league committee stressed that the club should have done more to check out the player's personal history and in the circumstances deducted every point they won with him playing, which included all 20 for the win over Accies, the four gained against Marchmont and the three from the Heriot's seconds match.

"There is a feeling among the team that such a heavy penalty was very harsh and we did consider an appeal but the league committee's assessment that we should have been more thorough is true," Gibson said.

"It is a serious blow to lose these 27 points but we will just have to get on with it. The win at the weekend was a boost but we need more results like that to get out of trouble."