West Indies coach Stuart Law has been suspended for his side’s first two ODIs against India following a breach of the ICC Code of Conduct for which he received a 100 per cent fine and three demerit points.

This means Law’s accumulated demerit points reached four within a 24-month period leading to the two-match ban. The first two ODIs will be held on October 21 and 24 in Guwahati and Visakhapatnam, respectively.

During Sunday’s play in the second and final India-West Indies Test in Hyderabad, Law, following the dismissal of Kieran Powell, went to the TV umpire’s room and made inappropriate comments. He then walked to the fourth umpire’s area and, in the presence of the players, again directed inappropriate comments at the fourth official, said an ICC release.

“Law was found guilty of breaching Level 2 Article 2.7 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to ‘Public criticism of, or inappropriate comment in relation to an incident occurring in an International Match or any Player, Player Support Personnel, Match Official or team participating in any International Match, irrespective of when such criticism or inappropriate comment is made’,” the release added.

Law was irked by the decision that saw Powell walk back to the pavilion for a nine-ball duck in the second innings of the recently concluded Test. In one of those calls where the soft signal played a crucial role in arriving at the final decision, Powell was adjudged out caught in the slip cordon by Ajinkya Rahane off Ravichandran Ashwin’s bowling, as there was no conclusive evidence that the ball had taken a bump or Rahane didn’t get his palms underneath it.

As Law had received a 25 per cent fine and one demerit point during the final day’s play in the Dominica Test against Pakistan in May 2017, with the addition of these three demerit points, he has reached the threshold of four demerit points which, pursuant to article 7.6 of the Code of Conduct, have now been converted into two suspension points.

On Monday, Law had admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by Chris Broad of the elite panel of ICC match referees and, as such, there was no need for a formal hearing. The charges were levelled by on-field umpires Bruce Oxenford and Ian Gould, third umpire Nigel Llong and fourth official Nitin Menon.

The suspension will cut short Law’s remaining time with West Indies. The tour of India is his penultimate assignment as West Indies coach. The former Australia middle-order batsman, who will turn 50 on Thursday, had announced he would quit his position once West Indies completed their tours of India and Bangladesh, and move to England to take charge of Middlesex. He will be going to Middlesex in December, while for the Windies, he will now be available for three ODIs and the T20I series that follows.

This is the second time in the last three months that an international coach has been suspended, with Sri Lanka’s Chandika Hathurusingha also forced to miss matches due to ICC sanctions over a ball-tampering offence, which occurred during their tour of West Indies.

For the Windies, they have been dealt a blow even before the first ball of the ODI series is bowled. Thrashed in the two Tests, they have only these five ODIs and the T20I matches to return home with at least something.

Some of their limited-overs specialists, like Evin Lewis, Marlon Samuels and Rovman Powell, are in the squad while captain Jason Holder too tried his fair bit in the only Test he played, in Hyderabad. The two formats are also different, but do the current Windies players have the skill set or more importantly, the temperament to claw out of tough situations come what may?

It remains to be seen.