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| November 30, 2001 | Friday | Ramazan 14, 1422 |
ICC backs down, extends deadline by 24 hours
LONDON, Nov 29: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has given India one last chance to salvage the crisis surrounding the selection of suspended batsman Virender Sehwag by extending their Friday deadline by 24 hours.
ICC president Malcolm Gray and chief executive Malcolm Speed are now set to meet Indian cricket chief Jagmohan Dalmiya on Saturday in a bid to save the Mohali Test match between India and England, which is scheduled to start on Monday.
This means the initial ICC deadline of 0630GMT Friday for India to make a final decision on Sehwag has been put back a day.
“Intense discussions have been taking place over the past 24 hours between the ICC and BCCI,” the ICC said in a statement on Thursday.
“The ICC has made three written offers to the BCCI to reach a sensible resolution to the matter and there have been lengthy telephone conversations between Malcolm Speed and Jagmohan Dalmiya.”
Dalmiya had refused to accept the Friday deadline, which could force the ICC to declare the Mohali test match unofficial and abort England’s tour. England have made it clear they will not play an unofficial Test.
The one-match ban on Sehwag was imposed for dissent in the second Test against South Africa. India refused to accept ICC-appointed Mike Denness as the match referee for the third match of the series, which the ICC ruled as unofficial.
India refused to accept the ICC’s ruling and added fuel to the fire by saying that Sehwag, who did not play in the third match, had now served his ban.
Speed remains hopeful that the impasse will be resolved, though he conceded there was still a long way to go.
“I am not too interested if parties or individuals lose face,” he told a news conference in London on Thursday. “What I want to achieve is a result that works for cricket.”
Speed confessed he has been through a roller-coaster of emotions in his attempts to broker a deal with Dalmiya, offering to travel to Kuala Lumpur to meet the BCCI president if no agreement can be reached before Saturday morning.
“The barometer of my optimism has gone up and down in the last 48 hours,” Speed said. “I am optimistic by nature but I am also a realist.
“We are making progress but we still have a considerable way to go.”—Reuters
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