March 6, 2002	Wednesday	Zilhaj 21, 1422

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LAHORE, March 5: The Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) decision to name a home umpire and not staging the final starting tomorrow on a netural territory has caused controversy here.

The ACC named Athar Zaidi along with Australian Daryl Harper for the title match between Sri Lanka with Justice Ebraheem as the match referee.

Interestingly, both the league matches in the competition were supervised by third country umpires.

Peter Manual and Darrell Hair stood at Multan while Riazuddin and Rudi Kuertzen were incharge at Colombo.

Similarly, the inaugural championship was also played under third country umpires. The sudden change in the rules has surprised the Sri Lankan management. But they have not lodged any protests claiming they were on a goodwill tour. The PCB were quick to place the responsibility on the ACC saying it was not the organizing board.

“The ICC named one third country umpire and a match referee on the request of the ACC. I think the ACC is the competent authority to clarify the matter.” a PCB spokesman said.

The visitors also played down why the match was not staged on a netural venue. “I am not sure exactly what the rules are, to be honest. But in this case, the team is very happy to be in Pakistan,” Lankan coach Dave Whatmore said. “A request was made and we accepted.”