A LONG WAIT: The ICC is keen to resolve the charges against Inzamam-ul-Haq quickly. Here, Inzamam waits for the play to start against Middlesex at Uxbridge on Thursday. The match was called off owing to bad weather. Photo: AP

LONDON: The legal teams of the Pakistan Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council, the world governing body, will meet on Friday in the latest bid to bring an end to the wrangling over the disciplinary hearing against Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, on charges relating to ball tampering and bringing the game into disrepute by failing to return to the field after tea last Sunday.

"I have every confidence this meeting will find the right date and the right place for the hearing," said Shaharyar Khan, the Chairman of the PCB.

Malcolm Speed, the Chief Executive of ICC and a former lawyer, is flying into London in the next 24 hours and is sure to have a considerable input into the discussions.

Difficult task

The lawyers face a difficult task. London is the obvious venue but when can the hearing be held and in front of whom?

Friday is too early and Saturday would bring an unedifying clash with the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy final, one of the highlights of the English summer. That would make the building society sponsors unhappy since it would ensure that their glamour match received very little publicity.

Sunday in London is a possibility but after that the windows of opportunity for a meeting which is bound to last several hours and could extend into the next day when Pakistan has a Twenty20 match against England 113 miles away in Bristol.

After Monday the teams are either playing or travelling for the five one-day matches spread over the next 12 days in Cardiff, London, Southampton, Nottingham and Birmingham.

Financial concerns

My learned friends are no doubt rubbing their hands at the thought to the big fees coming their way in the next two weeks; England is worried that it might lose £15m if the games are not played and Pakistan will be concerned by the consequences if ECB wishes to recover that money in court.

Mr. Shaharyar Khan said he had told the players the games must go ahead because their quarrel was not with the ECB but added that they did not want to play with "the sword of the hearing over our heads."

South Africa may save the situation for both England and Pakistan. It has offered to stand in for Pakistan if it returns home.

Meanwhile several side issues continue to cloud the main problem. Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, confessed that he had thought of resigning, he has not got along with the tour manager Zaheer Abbas on this tour, but that he had changed his mind.

It must still be an option since, as he says, at 58 he does not need the hassle and he also has a stack of options, including the chance to coach Yorkshire, although whether substituting Yorkshire for Pakistan is a jump from frying pan to fire remains to be seen. He also has offers to write books and newspaper columns.

Pakistan could not play its warm-up match at Uxbridge because of the weather but one wonders if the players' hearts are in cricket after the trauma of the past five days.

They are reported to be solidly behind Inzamam, which makes one suspect that if ICC holds firm to its belief that a Match Referee's hearing is the only way out of the problem and bans him, the team will take the short trip from its Heathrow hotel to the airport this week-end.

The consequences of that do not bring on ideas of a bright future.

"Knee-jerk" reaction

Agencies add:

Meanwhile, the PCB has dismissed ICC's refusal to bar Darell Hair from officiating in matches involving it as a "knee-jerk" reaction.

"To say that no country can dictate who is going to be an umpire is an obvious knee-jerk reaction. Yet it has happened before with the Sri Lankans, when Hair was out (of the ICC Elite Panel) for a year," Mr. Shaharyar was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Mr. Speed had said on Wednesday that the world body would not entertain any interference in appointment of umpires from member countries.

Mr. Speed admitted that the ICC had received a letter from Mr. Shaharyar expressing his concerns about the appointment of Hair in matches involving Pakistan.

Howard supports Hair

Hair has stood by his action and he received the tacit backing of Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Thursday. Mr. Howard said the game would descend into "chaos" if umpires did not receive support when enforcing the rules.

While refusing to comment on specific issues arising from Hair's involvement in the controversy, Mr. Howard said umpires deserved support for applying the rules.

"I always believe that umpires and referees should be supported by the governing body of the game. There are rules and, provided the rules are followed and properly applied, then the umpires should be supported. Once you start cutting and running from supporting umpires, you have chaos," Mr. Howard said.

Asked if he gave Hair his full backing, Mr. Howard said: "I'll leave that to the International Cricket Council."

However, Mr. Howard's position is at odds with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who phoned national captain Inzamam after the incident to express his support for the protest.

Howard said he hoped the matter would be resolved because Pakistan was a great cricketing nation. "Their President is a cricket fanatic, like I am, and I just hope that the matter is resolved and we go back to normal operations," he said.

`Row could split ICC'

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Sports Minister, Mian Shimam Haider, has warned that the ball tampering row could split the ICC.

He said there was a "real possibility" of Asia's four Test-playing countries forming a faction within the ICC over the row, which has prompted racism claims against Hair.

"He's been controversial. He had done the same thing with the Indians, he had done the same thing with the Sri Lankans, and Bangladesh," Haider told the BBC.

"There could be groups and the ICC would be divided into two groups." — Agencies

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail