Rediff India Abroad
 Rediff India Abroad Home  |  All the sections

Search:



The Web

India Abroad




Newsletters
Sign up today!

Article Tools
Email this article
Top emailed links
Print this article
Contact the editors
Discuss this article

Home > Cricket > Report


Inzamam hearing on September 27-28

September 07, 2006 16:27 IST

The Code of Conduct hearing against Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq for alleged ball tampering and bringing the game into disrepute will be held in London on September 27 and 28, the International Cricket Council announced on Thursday.

"The hearing would be held in London on September 27 and 28. I don't want to dwell much on it after having told the Pakistan team members as well as the concerned umpires to keep quiet," ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said.

Speed, who inaugurated the official ICC Champions Trophy website, www.iccchampionstrophy.com, said even if no video proofs for or against the alleged code violations by the Pakistan captain were available, there are other ways to deal with the charges.

"The ball is an evidence. The evidence from the umpires (Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove) and people who have seen the ball (are there)," Speed said.

Speed also hit out at match referee Mike Procter in a veiled manner, saying the issue should not have been allowed to come to such a pass by Procter, which resulted in lawyers now being made party to the dispute.

"As per the laws of the game the umpires should be the sole judges of fair and unfair play. The issue is too simple and should have been dealt with by the match referee on the field itself," Speed commented.

Elaborating about the absence of any video evidence against the charges, Speed said in that case no murder or robbery charges can be brought against anyone in the absence of similar evidence.

"I am not saying the charges are equivalent to committing murder or robbery, but drawing an analogy if we require video evidence of every murder or robbery committed then the jails of this world would be empty," the Australian-born ICC CEO said.

"There are other evidences (to be looked into). It will all unfold at the hearing," he said.

However, Speed refused to specify whether any forensic evidence would be looked into to resolve the issue by emphasising that he did not want to dwell too much into the issue before the hearing.

"The lawyers of the Pakistan Cricket Board and the ICC are on the job. I don't know whether forensic evidence will be there," he said.

Speed also sought to play down the latest controversy to hit cricket, saying it cannot be compared in the same breath with previous crisis like Bodyline (in the early 1930s) or World Series Cricket (of Kerry Packer in the late 1979s) and did not even merit to get into the top ten of this list.

"This is a simple issue. It would not get into the top ten crisis that has affected the game like the chucking issue, Bodyline, World Series Cricket and corruption. These were serious issues," he pointed out.


Share your comments


 What do you think about the story?




Read what others have to say:


Number of User Comments: 3




Sub: ball tampering dispute

Mr.Speed's version of having a video footge of a murder is rediculous.Cricket is a programmed event & every movement of it is covered by videography.Hence ...


Posted by Partha Roy





Sub: Speed is Insane!!

I could not expect him saying and comparing ball tempering incidence with murder and robery!! He says all jails would have been empty in absance ...


Posted by Chirag Dixit





Sub: Malcolm Speed should first be sacked - he is acting funny !!!

All, Speed is really acting funny with the type of statements he is making regarding the ball tampering issue. Relating this incident to murder and ...


Posted by Mudassir Ehsan




Disclaimer


Advertisement






Copyright © 2006 Rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved.