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KOLKATA, Jan 12: The row between India and the International Cricket Council (ICC) over the Mike Denness affair looked set to flare up again after the Indian board on Saturday rejected a panel set up to review the matter.
Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, told reporters: “We have written a letter to the ICC and requested them to reconsider and reconstitute their panel.”
The three-man Referees Commission was set up by the world governing body as a compromise after India had match referee Denness sacked without ICC permission during their tour of South Africa late last year.
India were unhappy with some of Denness’s decisions and persuaded their South African hosts to sack him. The ICC responded by stripping the third and final match between the sides of its test status as the row escalated into a crisis.
The ICC on Thursday named South African judge A.L. Sachs, former Pakistan skipper Majid Khan and ex-Australia batsman Andrew Hilditch to their panel.
But Dalmiya said the ICC had not consulted him as expected but merely informed him of the panel members.
“It is disappointing the ICC did not have much concern or respect for Indian views. My entire board will feel very disappointed at the way we have been treated by the ICC.”
Dalmiya said that when the ICC originally proposed its panel in December, the BCCI suggested that members from South Africa, India and England (Denness is a former England captain) be excluded, being the parties involved in the controversy.
The BCCI also suggested that Zimbabwe’s Justice Ahmed Ebrahim, an ICC match referee, Australia’s Richie Benaud and Ian Chappell, Gary Sobers and Clive Lloyd of West Indies be considered. They were even prepared to accept England’s David Gower, Geoffrey Boycott and former Test umpire Dicky Bird.
Dalmiya said the BCCI had opposed Majid Khan because they did not want to “embarrass” him after he was drawn into making comments over match-fixing allegations following Pakistan’s defeat against Bangladesh in the 1999 World Cup.
Instead the BCCI proposed former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga, Pakistan’s Imran Khan and Zaheer Abbas.
Asked what would be BCCI’s response if the world governing body rejected its request, Dalmiya said: “Why should we pre-empt what needs to be done? We will cross the bridge when we come to it.”
The Referee’s Commission is due to meet in February and its findings will be considered by the next ICC executive board meeting in Colombo in March.
The commission will review whether Denness followed the ICC’s code of conduct during the second test at Port Elizabeth, where he sanctioned six Indian players.
It will also review whether there should be a right of appeal against decisions made by match referees and whether the ICC should set up a specific code of conduct for referees. Reuters
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In a further snub to India, the ICC appointed Denness as match referee for the Test and one-day series between the West Indies and Pakistan starting in the Gulf emirate of Sharjah on January 31.
That the former England captain has been given another assignment without the ICC waiting for the recommendations of the Referees Commission has not gone down well in Indian cricket circles.
A senior Indian cricket official saw the ICC moves as a clear snub to the country’s cricket authorities.
“The ICC has not considered our sentiments and this can have very serious consequences,” the official told AFP.
The ICC’s assertion that none of India’s nominees agreed to work on the panel was rejected by one candidate, Imran Khan.
“The ICC did not approach me for joining any panel to investigate match referee Mike Denness’s action against Indian players,” he said.
However, Khan demanded the abolition of the match referee’s role as soon as possible.
“There is no need for match referees in cricket as they are creating controversies one after another and instead their powers should be given to the two umpires on the field,” he said.
The two umpires should conduct the match and look after issues like discipline or question a bowler’s action while the third umpire should look after stumping or run outs, Khan added.
ICC’s Gray had said in a statement on Friday that “Benaud and Imran Khan were approached with a view to joining the panel but for personal and business reasons were unable to accept the invitation.”
