Azeem Rafiq has been suspended by Yorkshire following his foul-mouthed Twitter rant at England under-19s coach John Abrahams.

The 19-year-old off spinner will be unavailable for selection pending a full investigation by the club.

Rafiq, left out of the second Test match against Sri Lanka at Scarborough this week, referred to Abrahams as a “useless ******”.

He wrote: “What a ******* farsee ... John Abrahams is a useless ****... ECB prove it again what incompetent people are working for them!! John Abrahams is a useless ******.”

Rafiq is understood to have broken mid-match curfews during the first Test at Northampton last week, a fixture in which he captained England to a 199-run win.

Yorkshire chief executive Stewart Regan said: “Azeem’s behaviour was totally unacceptable, the club will not tolerate it.

“Our professional players are role models to aspiring young cricketers and need to behave as such.

“Whilst Azeem has apologised formally to the ECB, the club and the coach in question, the club still intend to carry out a full investigation before deciding on what disciplinary action to take.

“In the meantime, he is suspended on full pay and unavailable for selection.”

It is not the first time that Rafiq, who has played two Championship matches for Yorkshire this season, has been at the centre of controversy.

Although not his fault, Yorkshire were thrown out of the 2008 Twenty20 Cup for failing to register him properly.

Other Yorkshire players with their own Twitter pages include captain Andrew Gale, Jacques Rudolph, Tim Bresnan and Rich Pyrah.

England players Graeme Swann and Jimmy Anderson are prolific users of Twitter, while Bresnan was forced to apologise during the Champions Trophy last September after ranting at a fan who had doctored an image to make him look fat.

Earlier this week, Australian Rugby League side Penrith Panthers banned all of their players from using any social networking sites.

And Regan will be issuing a policy document to all players at Yorkshire, from academy through to the senior team, warning them about their use of such sites.

“Using these kind of sites to pass opinion on controversial issues surrounding their jobs will not be accepted,” said Regan, who will leave his Headingley position at the end of September to become the new chief executive at the Scottish Football Association.

* For all Yorkshire’s news and match updates, follow the Bradford Telegraph and Argus’ own cricket feed on www.twitter.com/tykestravels