The last word is yet to be heard on the James Anderson-Ravindra Jadeja issue. On Tuesday, the International Cricket Council said it was considering lodging an appeal against its judicial commissioner Gordon Lewis’s decision to absolve Anderson and Jadeja of the charges that were levelled against them with regard to a violation of the ICC’s Code of Conduct.
Through a press release, the ICC stated: “As per Section 8.3.2 of the ICC Code of Conduct, Chief Executive David Richardson has seven days — until Sunday, August 10 — to consider lodging an appeal against the decision. The ICC will make no further comment on this matter until the decision has been made.”
Anderson had allegedly pushed Jadeja during the first Test at Trent Bridge and India had then pressed for a Level 3 violation of the ICC Code of Conduct against him. England countered with a Level 2 breach accusation against Jadeja. In the ensuing enquiry, match referee David Boon adjudged the Indian all-rounder was not guilty of Level 2 and then downgraded Jadeja’s ‘offence’ to Level 1 and fined him 50 per cent of his match fee.
India appealed against the judgement and that, along with Anderson's case, came up for review under the watch of Lewis in a hearing at Southampton, last week. He then resolved that both Anderson and Jadeja were not guilty of violating the ICC Code of Conduct and banked his verdict upon the absence of clinching video evidence.
The roller-coaster ride, however, continued as there were questions about why Anderson — even after admitting to abusing Jadeja besides ‘pushing in self-defence’ — got away. Equally perplexing was the difference in the decisions invoked by Boon and Lewis against Jadeja. The ICC was obviously forced to introspect, and its current move has now left all eyes on Richardson. As for the two men caught in the crossfire — Jadeja and Anderson — they got busy with their pre-match routines here at Old Trafford, which incidentally is the England spearhead’s home ground.
Meanwhile, Ian Bell said except for the incident at Trent Bridge, the Test series so far hasn’t had any other issues. “In this series, apart from that incident that’s been talked about a lot, nothing has been said on the field, it’s been played in the right spirit.”
