NEW DELHI, July 5: The International Cricket Council (ICC) named South African judge Albie Sachs on Tuesday to hear a dispute over a six-match ban on India captain Saurav Ganguly.

Ganguly was banned for six one-dayers in April for his team’s slow over-rate in two consecutive games during a 4-2 one-day series defeat at home to Pakistan.

The Indian board on Sunday asked the ICC for arbitration, its initial appeal against match referee Chris Broad’s decision having been quashed by appeals commissioner Michael Beloff.

Although ICC rules say the commissioner’s decision is binding, the Indian board said it had contested some of the rules as well as the procedures adopted by Beloff.

ICC president Ehsan Mani said in a statement the issue would go before the Disputes Resolution Committee with the South African Constitutional Court judge hearing the case.

Justice Sachs would decide on the format and timeframe for the hearing and his decision would be final, the statement said.

Ganguly’s team exceeded the allotted time for completing the overs by almost 30 minutes in both games. He was fined for the first offence and banned for the next game, the fourth in the series.

The Indian board asked Ganguly to sit out the last two matches despite being eligible to play, pending the appeal.

The ICC ruled the ban would start retroactively with Ganguly having to miss four more games, ruling him out of the one-day tri-series in Sri Lanka starting on July 30.—Reuters

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