The ICC technical committee rejected England’s application on Saturday to reschedule their World Cup cricket game in Zimbabwe. The ICC awarded the full points to Zimbabwe.
England wanted Thursday’s game in Harare to be played in South Africa after citing safety and security concerns. Following a six-hour meeting, however, the six man technical committee turned down that application.
”The technical committee has unanimously decided that the concerns raised relating to new evidence regarding safety and security are not justified,” said ICC CEO Malcolm Speed at a news conference in Sandton.
”The committee has therefore unanimously declined the ECB application.
”England is deemed to have lost its match against Zimbabwe and the points are awarded to Zimbabwe accordingly.” England, however, has the right to appeal the decision. They have three hours upon receiving the judgement to lodge an appeal.
A day before the start of the tournament, England lost an appeal heard by Justice Albie Sachs but presented new evidence to the committee this week.
Speed did stress though that this appeal would be England’s final chance.
”We want this resolved as quickly as possible so that Ali Bacher and his workers can get on with running this tournament,” added Speed.
Their concerns, however, did strike a chord with at least one member of the technical committee, former West Indian Test pace bowler Michael Holding.
”As the most recently retired member of the technical committee, I understand exactly what the players are going through,” said Holding. ”But I had to look at what the security specialists brought forward.”
Ali Bacher, the tournament’s director, dismissed the notion that the tournament was losing its relevance.
”It is unfortunate,” said Bacher. ”We wanted all 54 matches to be played.
”There is a history of this in the World Cup. In 1996 Australia and the West Indies did not play in Sri Lanka.
”But there still are some fantastic matches to take place. We remain confident that this will be an outstanding tournament.”
In another decision on Friday, the ICC said no action will be taken against Zimbabwean cricketers Henry Olonga and Andy Flower for their public statement or the wearing of black armbands during the opening match against Namibia last Monday.
Olonga and Flower read out a statement declaring that they were ”deeply distressed” over the country’s political crisis, and that they could not ”in good conscience take to the field and ignore the fact that millions of our compatriots are starving, unemployed and oppressed”.
The matter was referred to the ICC technical committee by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU), which suggested that the actions of the players brought the game into disrepute and sought to have it dealt with under the ICC’s code of conduct.
The technical committee considered the issue and decided it was not appropriate for a charge to be laid under the code.
While strongly stating that the ICC’s position is that cricket should not be used as a vehicle through which to make political statements, the six member committee chaired by Malcolm Speed, did not find evidence to warrant a charge being laid against the pair.
”The ICC seeks at all times to avoid using cricket as a platform on which to advance political agendas and its very strong belief is that the players, officials and administrators within the game should refrain from doing the same.
”The committee requested that the players stop wearing black arm bands to make political statements for the duration of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003,” said Speed.
”There are enough people outside the sport seeking to achieve political ends through cricket for their own purposes, without the sport’s participants contributing to this matter.
He added that Flower and Olonga had blurred the lines between political issues and the sporting arena.
”While this is a principle that the ICC does not wish to see violated, it is also the case that there is no sound basis for finding that their actions have brought the game into disrepute and there is no charge that could be sustained under the ICC Code of Conduct.”
In making its decision, the technical committee also recognised that the actions may impact on the contractual relationship between the ZCU and its players and noted that if any matter arose from this relationship it would up to the ZCU and the players to resolve. – Sapa