September 12, 2003	Friday	Rajab 14, 1424

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FAISALABAD, Sept 11: The manager of Bangladesh cricket team, M.A. Latif Khan, was verbally cautioned on Thursday by the ICC Match Referee Mike Procter for making comments on Rashid Latif’s “unfair” catch in the third and final Test.

Procter, the former South African Test all-rounder, was unhappy at the Bangladesh official’s remarks during an interview with Reuters in which the manager had stated the banned Pakistan captain “deserved” to be punished for his unsporting gesture during the third day of the Multan Test. Rashid was banned for five ODIs by Procter after a hearing.

Procter had penalized Rashid under Level 3 of the ICC players’ code of conduct for bringing the game into disrepute after the Bangladesh team management had officially made a written complaint in which the Pakistani was accused of dishonesty since he had failed to recall Alok Kapali after not taking a clean catch during the visitors’s second innings last Friday.

Haroon Rasheed, the Pakistan manager, expressed his annoyance at his Bangladeshi counterpart’s views on the issue. Haroon claimed that once the ICC official had publicly announced the verdict and penalized the concerned player, such comments only served to aggravate the relationship between two countries.

The Bangladesh team officials have generally found wanting in their relationship with the home team counterparts during the course of the tour. Dav Whatmore, the coach, had already created unnecessary fuss for his comments on the flight services.

In addition, the Australian had refused to let Alok, the central figure in the Rashid case, talk to the media after the all-rounder claimed Bangladesh’s first-ever international hat trick in the second Test at Peshawar.

Subsequently, Whatmore, perhaps disturbed by lack of victories in Pakistan, again turned down the media who had wanted to speak to the Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud and the slow left-armer Mohammad Rafique at the end of the second day’s play of the third Test in Multan.

According to a Memorandum of Understanding, formulated at the cricket boards’ level and approved by the ICC, the media is fully entitled to speak to any player they wish at press briefings after the day’s play during or after the course of a match.