International cricket's disciplinary code lies in tatters after Sri Lanka's captain Arjuna Ranatunga successfully legally challenged the right of the International Cricket Council to ban him for a maximum six matches for his on-field rebellion against the Australian umpire Ross Emerson.

Peter van der Merwe, the South African match referee, announced with an air of resignation that the charges that Ranatunga had broken the ICC code of conduct had been proved, but that legal pressure had left him with no alternative but to suspend the sentence for 12 months.

Legal representations took up the vast proportion of a four-hour inquiry at the WACA ground in Perth into Ranatunga's frenzied response after Emerson had controversially no-balled Muttiah Muralitharan.

"The code of conduct was drawn up by cricketers for cricketers to be administered by cricketers," said Van de Merwe. "In this instance it was a great disappointment to find that legal people were prominent in this hearing."