Leicestershire have been deducted 16 points ahead of the new Specsavers County Championship campaign after incurring five fixed penalty breaches within the space of 12 months.
On the eve of the new county season, the England and Wales Cricket Board's Cricket Discipline Committee announced the county's repeated indiscipline meant a further eight-point penalty suspended for a year was imposed.
Following a disciplinary hearing in Leicester, captain Mark Cosgrove has been suspended for one game and the club have also been fined £5,000.
Fast bowler Charlie Shreck was found to have committed a level one breach of "using language that is obscene, offensive or insulting and/or making an obscene gesture" during Leicestershire's game against Loughborough MCCU last week.
That meant a Leicestershire player had been penalised five times in a year, with Cosgrove handed his sanction as he was leading the side on each occasion.
While the 32-year-old will be available for their Division Two opener against Nottinghamshire, which starts on Friday, he is slated to miss the Glamorgan clash in two weeks' time, pending any appeal which may be lodged.
A statement from the CDC said: "In reaching this decision, the panel reminded Leicestershire that repeated breaches of discipline are a matter of serious concern. This is the second occasion on which the club has committed a similar offence, with all 10 fixed penalty breaches occurring within three years.
The panel noted that the club has taken action against the latest player to incur a fixed penalty breach.
However, they noted that actions taken by the club since the previous disciplinary panel hearing have not been effective.
In addition, the panel acknowledged that the club and the captain pleaded guilty immediately to these charges."
The news is a significant blow for Leicestershire, who finished above Derbyshire and Glamorgan in 2016, ending a run of three successive seasons where they collected the wooden spoon.
Despite the hefty deduction - which amounts to one win, not including any bonus points accumulated - they will start the season above Durham.
The north-east county were relegated despite finishing fourth in Division One last year and will begin this campaign with minus 48 points after accepting a financial bailout from the ECB.
Cosgrove told BBC Radio Leicester: "We've got to get better, be more disciplined - 16 points is a big deal to us. It's a game."Hopefully we can get some positive points on the board. This hurts the boys. We need to learn and get better.
"Charlie is very disappointed and very apologetic. He overstepped the mark. He knows he did the wrong thing.
"We've just got to take it and move on and get busy into the season."
