The ICC has on Monday announced that Trent Bridge has been given an official warning under the ICC Pitch Monitoring Process following the first Test between England and India last month.
According to an media release, “The sanction takes into account the Nottingham venue’s history of producing good quality international pitches, that the monitoring of the pitch preparation by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) before the Test was appropriate, and that there was a commitment by both the ECB and Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club to relay the pitch ahead of the next international cricket season.”
ICC has clearly stated that the pitch did not provide “fair contest between bat and ball” and concluded that the pitch prepared for the match was of an “unacceptable standard for Test cricket.”
The finding was made by the ICC’s General Manager — Cricket, Geoff Allardice, and the ICC’s chief match referee, Ranjan Madugalle, after David Boon, who was the match referee for the Trent Bridge Test, rated the pitch as “poor” at the conclusion of the Test and in accordance with Clause 3 of the ICC Pitch Monitoring Process.
Richardson has 6 days to appeal
Manchester: The decision on whether to appeal or not against judicial commissioner Gordon lewis’ verdict pronouncing both James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja “not guilty” in the Trent Bridge altercation lies entirely on ICC CEO Dave Richardson, who now has six more days to do so.
Richardson, who was on leave, has resumed his duties at the ICC headquarters in Dubai and has received the written copy of the verdict by lewis and is learnt to have consulted his legal team on the matter. The latest that he can appeal to ICC is August 10 after which a three-member will be formed within 48 hours of the said appeal.
The former South Africa wicketkeeper has been entrusted with the task of looking into issue, since ICC chairman N Srinivasan has indicated that he would ideally like to refrain from taking any particular stand on the issue.
According to ICC sources, Srinivasan in his capacity as ICC chairman would like to stay neutral since India is involved in this incident.
Since it has now been proved that there are no video footages available of the alleged physical altercation between the duo during break of the Trent Bridge Test, Anderson might again go scot-free despite having admitted to abusing and pushing Jadeja. “In case Richardson appeals, then a three-member panel will be formed from the members of the ICC Code of Ethics committee. This time lewis along with the Indian and English representatives can’t be chosen. The three-member panel might take upto 30 days (as per ICC constitution) to give a verdict. PTI