WARRNAMBOOL and District Cricket Association (WDCA) is breaking new ground by threatening to suspend players, officials and clubs which intimidate or degrade opponents by online sledging.The move comes after The Standard reported that a club was on the receiving end of cyber sledging via Facebook before the 2009-10 season began.It was confirmed yesterday that the issue had been resolved by the clubs involved.WDCA general manager Keith Ellerton said the association would no longer tolerate the off-field behaviour.Its policy will be amended in the next week to cover online sledging while it will also monitor social networking websites."As these sites are basically open to anyone to read, the consequences can be extremely serious," Ellerton said. "We have a harassment policy and a code of behaviour and in that we need to include the electronic medium."We expect clubs to uphold that."The association warned in emails and on its website yesterday that if the board discovered any cyber sledging, players involved may be suspended and not be considered for representative sides while any official of the club who was found to be complicit may be suspended.The club could also face suspension.Ellerton stressed clubs should have policies covering harassment, discrimination and bullying.Cricket Victoria spokesman Eivion Bowen was yet to hear of an association which had implemented online harassment into its policy.He believed it would help in keeping up the spirit of the game."Certainly it's not the first time there have been incidents relating to the online behaviour of players," he said. "From our point of view, we can't keep tabs on the 11 or 1200 clubs throughout Victoria but the association has got the freedom to make decisions and it seems like someone's overstepped the line, so we're certainly not going to second guess them."It's good to see that there's a bit of foresight by the association."If they don't, they should download a WDCA policy and change it to suit their needs, he said.