ICC officials could toughen up their disciplinary procedures in the wake of Scotland�s stormy Intercontinental Cup final loss to Afghanistan. The Scots went down to a seven-wicket defeat at the Dubai International Stadium on Saturday as their hopes of success were decisively dashed.

However, the match was over-shadowed by a series of on-field misdemeanours as tempers boiled over in the desert heat. Scotland fast bowler Matty Parker was reprimanded for pointing an Afghan batsman on his way to the pavilion after taking his wicket on Saturday. The previous day Afghanistan�s Sami Shenwari had been warned for excessive appealing.

However, that pair were not the only miscreants and last night tournament officials were still probing a number of incidents which marred the showpiece final.

Richard Done, the ICC�s High Performance manager, said: �What we saw was unacceptable. Clearly we�ll have to look again at our Code of Conduct.�

Match referee David Jukes said of Parker�s outburst: �It is very unfortunate Mr Parker acted in this way. While I am certain he was highly elated following the fall of such an important wicket he must take responsibility for his actions and learn this type of behaviour will not be tolerated in international cricket.�

Wicketkeeper Mo Shahzad appeared to be the ring-leader of the Afghan antics which Cricket Scotland president Bob McFarlane described as �intimidation.�

ICC officials are still studying evidence to decide whether further charges would be brought against players from either side. However, McFarlane said: �I don�t think I�ve ever seen such inflammatory behaviour on a cricket field and it amounts to intimidation.�

McFarlane insisted onfield officials Kumar Dharmasena and Buddhi Prabhu failed to act against the Afghans. But when some Scottish players responded they issued several onfield warnings to captain Gordon Drummond.

�Unless you have strong umpires you don�t stop the problem. You are looking for parity but I didn�t see that,� added McFarlane.

Scotland coach Pete Steindl made no apology for the actions of his players, saying: �That�s international cricket and I�m proud of the fact our guys came hard as well.

�It�s what you have to do � you have to meet fire with fire. It�s competitive stuff and I�ve got no problems at all.�

Steindl was more concerned with the batting collapse that wrecked his side�s chance of a first cup success in six years. The Saltires were in pole position after building a 41-run first-innings lead, only to be bowled out for 82 � their lowest cup total ever.

Scotland�s problems can be traced back to the loss of six wickets on Friday evening as they tried to build on their advantage. Instead, the run out of Durham�s Kyle Coetzer appeared to spark panic as they closed on 64-6.

There was no improvement on Saturday morning as the Afghan bowlers, for whom man-of-the match Hamid Hassan claimed eight wickets in the game, ruthlessly mopped-up the tail. Only 18 runs were added, leaving Afghanistan a simple task to knock off the 124 runs needed for their first cup win.

Parker struck twice and Ross Lyons once as the Scots went down fighting but the damage had been done.

Steindl added: �I�m extremely disappointed. We put ourselves in a good position after the first innings when we fought back from a really tough start with the bat to post a competitive score. But we let it slip in the last hour of play on the second day and after that we were always up against it and didn�t recover.

�This year our lower order have bailed us out a number of times and you can�t expect that to happen every time and Afghanistan had their tails up and came in hard. What the guys faced was quite brutal � so I can�t fault them for their effort and to be honest a lead of 124 just wasn�t enough. That is the nature of cricket. You can work hard for two-and-a-half sessions and in the space of half a session you get yourself in a position where you are in trouble.�

Saturday�s reverse was Scotland�s second cup final defeat of the year following their runners-up finish at the World Cricket League in July.