West Indies bowler Shannon Gabriel banned for four matches following comments to Joe Root

West Indies bowler Shannon Gabriel has accepted the International Cricket Council's code of conduct charge for comments made to England's Joe Root and will miss the first four matches of the one-day series.

Gabriel has been fined 75 per cent of his match fee for the third Test in St Lucia and handed three demerit points, taking his total to eight - enough to be banned for four ODIs or one Test.

The nature of the paceman's words is not known but Root was picked up on stump microphones telling Gabriel "don't use it as an insult. There's nothing wrong with being gay".

Gabriel was not included in the initial squad for the five ODIs against England but the Windies had made it clear he would be added after a brief rest period and intended to call up the 30-year-old as injury cover for Keemo Paul and Rovman Powell.

He is likely to return in time for the final match of the series.Gabriel accepted the charges, which cover "language of a personal, insulting, obscene and/or offensive nature", but Press Association Sport understands he does not believe himself to have been guilty of any homophobic abuse.

Although supportive of Gabriel, Cricket West Indies is understood to be comfortable with the application of the rules in this instance, provided the zero tolerance approach is applied across the board in future.

It has been noted that Gabriel's comments were not caught on the microphone and the ICC have effectively set a precedent for future charges relating to on-field exchanges between players.