July 03, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 28, 1429

KARACHI, July 2: In a moral victory for Pakistan cricket, the ICC has agreed in principle to convert the result of the 2006’s controversial Oval Test between England and Pakistan into a draw from a forfeited win for Michael Vaughan’s men.

“The decision was taken at the board meeting on Wednesday with Pakistan pressing for the authorities to convert the result of the Oval Test result,” sources in the Pakistan Cricket Board said.

The Test was awarded to England by umpire Darrell Hair after Pakistan did not come out to field, following accusations of ball-tampering, in the post tea session on the fourth day, making it the first forfeiture in the history of Test cricket.

“Members of other Boards supported us in our stand that the result should be officially changed to a draw as an ICC adjudicator later found Hair guilty of not behaving properly during the entire episode,” they said. “The Board agreed the result should be a draw,” the sources added.

The source said the ICC agreed to change the result after Pakistan pointed out that Hair had been suspended by the ICC later on because of the incident.

“I can just confirm the (ICC) board agreed to change the result,” one senior PCB official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

England were declared winners after Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq refused to lead his team back onto the pitch following the tea session on the fourth day after they had been docked five runs for ball-tampering by umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove.

The ICC board agreed to the change on Wednesday after lengthy discussion at its annual conference in Dubai.

Other PCB sources said all board members, including officials from England, agreed to Pakistan’s request which had initially been made in January.

The result led to a strong protest from Pakistan and the ICC appointed an adjudicator to probe the incident that had resulted in the first forfeited result in tests. The ICC adjudicator, Ranjan Madugalle, banned Inzamam for four games but cleared Pakistan of ball-tampering charges. He also censored Hair for overstepping his authority.

In November the same year, the ICC board suspended Hair from supervising test and international matches for his conduct and he was only restored in March this year after the Australian underwent a six-month rehabilitation course.

“The ICC will make an official announcement after the conclusion of the board meeting on Thursday. We are happy that the members have accepted our point of view that the result should not be given to either team,” one PCB source said.—Agencies