Controversy continued to nag at the ICC World Cup on Saturday when England skipper Nasser Hussain threatened to quit after the International Cricket Council rejected England’s application to relocate its World Cup game in Zimbabwe and awarded the points to the home team. Hussain reacted with anger shortly after the
England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB’s) decision on Saturday morning not to appeal against the ICC technical committee’s rejection of their application.
England thus conceded the full points to Zimbabwe and indicated that the penalty of a reported 1-million pounds for not honouring the Harare fixture on Thursday would go before arbitration.
Hussain, meanwhile, was reportedly at the centre of a storm after allegations that he was involved in a heated exchange last Friday with International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Malcolm Speed over the Zimbabwe boycott controversy.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) apparently apologised to Speed. A livid Hussain said ”there was nothing to apologise for.”
Hussain said he was angry at the manner in which the England-Zimbabwe issue had been handled. Speaking at a lunch-time press conference in East London just prior to England’s opening match of the tournament against Holland at Buffalo Park on Sunday, Nasser said that his team had been badly let down by the ICC and the ECB.
He accused the ICC of letting down the English players for ”money and politics.”
”I am quite annoyed. It leaves me as captain in isolation again. My trust in authorities in general today and last week has left me low. I’m seriously considering stepping down as the England captain after this World Cup.”
Tim Lamb, CEO of the English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said of the Zimbabwe issue: ”We feel that we’ve done everything we could have done to persuade the ICC of the merits of our case.
”But we feel this has gone on too long — in the interests of all the teams and the tournament we are going to put this behind us.
”We wish to stress, however, that the ECB is not happy with the decision. The ECB has been advised by its lawyers that the decision is legally incorrect.
”We moreover believe that we did put significant new evidence before the technical committee on Friday which was not available to the committee at the original hearing on February 6.
”We also called into question the basis on which the committee decided on that date not to relocate the Zimbabwe-England match to a safer location outside of Zimbabwe.”
In response to reports that they would be fined one-million pounds Lamb said: ”The financial aspects will be dealt with in the future probably through arbitration.”
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 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.”
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 stressed 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.”
Lamb, meanwhile, said on Saturday that he had not received any assurances that the South African cricket tour to England this year would go ahead.
After England declined to honour their World Cup match against Zimbabwe in Harare, president of the United Cricket Board of South Africa Percy Sonn said the Board might have to reconsider the tour.
Lamb however expressed the hope on Saturday that the tour would go ahead. ”I would like both the South African and Zimbabwean tours to England to take place,” he said. – Sapa