July 06, 2008	Sunday	Rajab 2, 1429

LONDON, July 5: Cricket officials who hoped this week might end with one sort of resignation from the International Cricket Council (ICC) had to cope with another as Michael Holding quit its Cricket Committee.

The West Indies great stepped down in protest at the ICC’s decision, taken at its board meeting in Dubai, to change the result of the 2006 Oval Test from an England win over Pakistan to a draw.

Pakistan were originally ruled to have forfeited the match, something never before seen in a Test, following their refusal to take the field after tea on the fourth day having previously been penalised five runs for ball-tampering by umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove.

A subsequent hearing cleared Pakistan of ball-tampering and, on Thursday, the ICC took the extraordinary step of altering the match result.

Former fast bowler Holding, while accepting Pakistan were not guilty of ball-tampering, said their refusal to play should not go unpunished.

“When you take certain actions, you must be quite happy to suffer the consequences,” he said on Friday. “That game should never, ever be a draw.

“I have just written my letter of resignation to the ICC Cricket Committee because I cannot agree with what they’ve done.

“A lot of things that are happening today I don’t want to be involved with, so I’ve moved on,” Holding added.

Holding’s announcement set the seal on a turbulent week for the ICC which saw England and South Africa pushing for the suspension of strife-torn Zimbabwe from world cricket.—AFP