Leicestershire sweat on pitch charge as they fight to stay in Division One

Club charged with breaching the ECB's pitch regulations for their home fixture against Glamorgan

Leicestershire's hopes of avoiding relegation from Division One of the County Championship may hinge on the outcome of a Cricket Discipline Panel decision on their pitch.

The Cricket Regulator confirmed on Tuesday morning that Leicestershire have been charged with breaching the ECB's pitch regulations for their home fixture against Glamorgan last month. Match referee Ian Ramage had asked Andy Mackay, the ECB's pitch and grounds advisor, to carry out an inspection after Leicestershire won a low-scoring match on the fourth day.

Leicestershire said that they "strongly dispute the allegations" brought by the Regulator, which have now been referred to the independent Cricket Discipline Panel. The club responded to the charges on Monday, and added: "As the proceedings are ongoing, we will refrain from providing further comments until the outcome of the hearing is determined."

The surface had an unusual appearance, with a grass covering mid-pitch but both ends cut shorter, and several dismissals were the result of variable bounce. However, all four innings lasted at least 50 overs, and two players - Sheridon Gumbs and Kiran Carlson - made scores in the 90s.

Alfonso Thomas, Leicestershire's head coach, defended the pitch at the time, saying: "A couple of batters showed that if you applied yourself, and didn't just wait for the ball to go up and down, you could make runs. You had a couple of guys who batted for almost 200 balls. As for any suggestion that it was unsafe, no-one went to hospital."

Thomas suggested that the fact that a film crew - understood to be a Bollywood production team filming for a biopic - had been shooting at Upstonsteel Grace Road in the build-up to the game had affected the pitch's moisture levels. "It was a bit drier than it could have been," he conceded.

Richard Dawson, Glamorgan's head coach, suggested that it was a challenging surface to bat on. "The ball seamed from ball one, and went up and down, so it was a tough one for the batters to play on," he said. "I'm not here to make decisions about the pitch but, as you say, people got hit. Ben Kellaway got two dismissals in the game that were completely out of his control."

Leicestershire took 19 points from the match, which they would lose in the event that the Cricket Discipline Panel upholds a pitch rating of 'below average' or worse under new ECB regulations for this season.

They are fighting for survival in Division One, and sit ninth heading into the final three rounds of fixtures. But the table is incredibly tight: they are seven points behind eighth-placed Yorkshire, and only 11 points behind Glamorgan in fifth.

Leicestershire announced on Monday that they have signed England Lions seamer Nathan Gilchrist on a short-term loan from Warwickshire, ahead of their home game against Somerset this week.