Re: THIS IS BIG: England Triggered ball row - Confirmed
Pakistan want Inzamam hearing delayed
Lawrence Booth
Wednesday August 23, 2006
The Guardian
The lawyers representing the Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq are to ask the International Cricket Council to delay his hearing, scheduled to take place in London on Friday, in order to allow them more time to prepare their case.
After meeting members of the Pakistan team and speaking with the Pakistan High Commission in London, Mark Gay, a sports specialist for the legal firm DLA Piper who has previously represented Rio Ferdinand and in 2003 worked with the England cricket team during the Zimbabwe crisis at the World Cup, said he was confident the ICC would be unable to produce any evidence of ball-tampering. "We are delighted to be representing Inzamam against these allegations and we are confident that justice will prevail in this case," he said.
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Shaharyar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, said: "We are determined to defend these charges vigorously and we wanted to make sure that we have the best possible representation."
Inzamam faces a level-two charge of tampering with the ball and a level-three charge of bringing the game into disrepute, but it is the outcome of the tampering charge that could determine whether or not the tour continues. A senior source within the tourists' set-up yesterday told The Guardian that if the ICC concurs with the umpires' view that Pakistan cheated on Sunday at The Oval, there was "no chance of the one-day series taking place".
But the hearing might not now be presided over by the Sri Lankan Ranjan Madugalle, who had been approved by the PCB, because of family problems. If he cannot make it, he is likely to be replaced by another senior ICC match referee such as his compatriot Roshan Mahanama or the West Indian Clive Lloyd, both of whom would be acceptable to Pakistan.
Any appeal against a conviction would then have to be heard within eight days of it being made, and the pressure on Darrell Hair, the Australian umpire at the centre of the controversy, intensified yesterday when it emerged that the chief executive of the ICC, Malcolm Speed, had gone to great lengths on Sunday evening to try to persuade Hair to back down and salvage the fourth Test.
Speed spoke twice on the phone to Hair as it became clear that the Australian umpire was the only obstacle to the continuation of the Test. The chairmen of the England and Pakistan boards, Khan and David Morgan, as well as the match referee Mike Proctor and the two captains, Inzamam and Andrew Strauss, were all prepared to resume play, leaving Hair and his colleague Billy Doctrove isolated.
The game was awarded to England after Pakistan were ruled to have forfeited the match, but Inzamam has called for the result to be overturned and a no-result declared instead. There has even been talk of Pakistan boycotting tomorrow's one-day game with Middlesex at Uxbridge in protest at their treatment, although a spokeswoman for the county said s*he had been assured by Pakistan team officials that the match would go ahead.*
Hair, though, has defended his role in Sunday's events. "People who know me and the sort of person I am know I would not take action unless I really thought it was necessary," he said. "I stand by what I have done, but if anything comes out at the inquiry that proves me incorrect I would accept that too. The media criticism has been hot, and that surprises me. But life goes on, nobody died."
Responding to criticism of his attitude by Shaharyar Khan, Hair denied he was biased against Asian teams. "There is no problem with me and the subcontinent," he said. "I have umpired quite a lot in the subcontinent over the last couple of years and, when the ICC have asked me to do a job, I try and do it to the best of my ability. I have always taken a lot of pride in my performance and while I am doing the best job I can I am going to continue."
Meanwhile, England have denied reports that their coach Duncan Fletcher visited Procter to ask him to watch out for any illegal practices by the Pakistan bowlers. They said that he went to consult Procter about the delay for bad light that held up the start of play for 15 minutes on the fourth morning. "We can confirm that no complaint about the match ball was registered," said an ECB spokesman. "There were no complaints lodged about anything at all."
Being a Saturday I watched every frame of the game and its preceedings when this boomshell was unleashed.