ICC demand legal costs for Ranatunga probe

COLOMBO, AUG 18: The International Cricket Council has asked the Sri Lankan board to pay legal costs running into thousands of dollars fo...

COLOMBO, AUG 18: The International Cricket Council has asked the Sri Lankan board to pay legal costs running into thousands of dollars for its arbitration last year on a fracas involving the then Sri Lankan skipper Arjuna Ranatunga and Australian umpire Ross Emerson.

The Lankan officials today said ICC has written to the board asking it to pay legal expenses. The board has to respond before the ICC’s executive meeting slated to take place in Dubai in October this year.

The ICC letter has been referred for legal opinion and an appropriate decision would be taken before the ICC meeting, board official said.

Ranatunga was hauled up for breaking the ICC code of conduct after he led the Sri Lankan team out of the ground and also confronted Emerson for calling off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing during a one-day World Series match against England Down Under in January last year.

The Sri Lankan board engaged a top Australian lawyer to defend the beleaguered skipper during the inquiry conducted bySouth African Peter van der Merwe, ICC match referee for the series between Sri Lanka, Australia and England.

The inquiry proved to be a trend setter as till then no player or a board had hired lawyers to defend themselves in an ICC inquiry. This forced ICC too to engage top lawyers to deal with the case.

Ranatunga was finally given a six months suspended sentence by Van Der Merwe. Ironically, the issue has been raked up just before the Australians embark on another potentially acrimonious series against Sri Lanka later this month.

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The Australian team led by Steve Waugh landed here last night for a one-day tri-series also involving India, which will be followed by a three-Test series against the islanders.

Cricketing relations between the two countries have been tense ever since Muralitharan was called for chucking by Australian umpires Darrel Hair and Emerson during the 1996 tour of Australia.

Muralitharan was subsequently absolved by ICC of the charges after it was proved he had a permanentdeformity in his arm and can not bend it.

The Australian umpires refuse to accept the ICC ruling. Before the 1998 tour, Hair called Muralitharan’s action diabolic’ while Emerson, who was later found to be on stress leave, pulled up the bowler again.

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Muralitharan was called chucker by the local crowd everytime he bowled in Australia last year and Ranatunga, who lost the captaincy to Sanath Jayasuriya after the disastrous World Cup campaign in England, was also booed.