Proteas bowler Kagiso Rabada’s appeal against his two-match suspension, which has ruled him out for the rest of the series against Australia, has just begun at an undisclosed venue.

The 22-year-old Rabada is being represented by Advocate Dali Mpofu SC, while the ICC has appointed Michael Heron QC of New Zealand as the judicial commissioner.

Heron will have 48 hours to come to a decision once the hearing concludes.

Rabada is on nine demerit points after picking up four demerit points in total during the Port Elizabeth Test.

He is only attempting to be cleared of three of those points, picked up when he made contact with Steven Smith’s shoulder when he dismissed the Australian captain in the first innings. Rabada went into the fixture on five demerit points and reached the threshold of eight, which equates to a two-Test ban.

Over the weekend, Rabada accepted part of the blame for the incident and said: ‘I take responsibility for what happened. On the video, it looks like I got into the guy’s space, so I shouldn’t have done that. I’ll say 50/50, it’s my fault. I didn’t feel anything in the moment.’

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