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| August 23, 2006 | Wednesday | Rajab 27, 1427 |
Richards blames ICC for row
LONDON, Aug 22: West Indies legend Sir Viv Richards believes cricket game's rulers should take their share of blame over Pakistan ball-tampering fiasco. Though Richards admits he does not know full facts behind the matter, he is unhappy with certain aspects of the way game is policed by International Cricket Council (ICC).
Richards, who played 121 Tests for the West Indies, told LBC News 1152: “This Mr Hair fellow seems to have been in thick of things for some time and maybe he could be a part of contributing factor to all that happened - but there could be so many different sides to the story.
“I believe there are so many things that contributed to what we saw on Sunday and I am a little dismayed at times with ICC and decisions they make.
“Certain things need to be addressed and if we address them in right manner we can have sort of camaraderie in the sport which has gained so much respect over the years. That is why it is called the gentleman's game and when you look and see things happening in today's cricket it doesn't seem that gentlemanly anymore.”
Richards concedes he does not know how he would have reacted in Inzamam's position. “As a captain, I'd like to take some strong decisions. It depends on the things that led up to these guys not taking field.
“We have to find out exactly what is meat to this story. I think there are a lot of concerns for people who administrate this game, way it is administrated and people who administrate it at times.”
GEORGETOWN: The West Indies Cricket Board complained to the ICC last year about the standard of umpiring after the team's 3-0 Test series loss in Australia.
As the fallout continued from Pakistan forfeiting the final Test to England due to ball-tampering claims, WICB director Chetram Singh says his team had also received biased or incompetent decisions Down Under.
“We don't want to pass judgment on what happened in England at the weekend, but we have had some harsh decisions in the past. In Australia, we had 16 or 17 glaring decisions and we had to complain,” Singh said on Tuesday.
Singh said the current “crisis does not augur well for cricket,” arguing that the ICC has to listen to the West Indies and Asian teams which have problems with particular umpires.
Ian Howell, Rudi Koertzen, Aleem Dar and Billy Bowden officiated in the Australia-West Indies series.
Bowden has been voted by players as the least competent umpire on the ICC's elite panel.—Agencies
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