Kapil threatens to quit ICC panel over Chauhan issue

He said the ICC has no locus standi to direct the BCCI to drop Chauhan on charges of chucking. “They can only request and not direct the board…I don’t know what the ICC is trying to prove. By their action the ICC has questioned the judgment of two players (Kapil and Gavaskar) who have played more than 100 Tests each. The ICC action shows that it doubts our integrity and capability.”

Kapil added that he did not have enough evidence to hold Chauhan guilty after examining his action. “We were not provided with enough footage from various angles,” he explained. But he slammed the BCCI which opted to sack Chauhan than back him, unlike the Sri Lankans who persisted with the `suspect’ Kumara Dharmasena. “Our Board showed weakness and adopted a slippery position, while handling the (Chauhan) issue,” Kapil retorted.

He said it was wrong to have removed Mohammed Azharuddin from the helm in 1996 when he was capable of serving the country for a few more years and it was worse replacing Sachin Tendulkar when he had begun to mature. The message was clear when he indicated that while captains change the selection committee virtually remains the same. Moving on to the axing of Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad, Kapil said one doesn’t go around dropping players of their calibre. Such actions would only result in “destroying the confidence of these players.”

BCCSL DENIES DALMIYA’S STATEMENT: Contrary to the announcement made by ICC naming Sri Lankan off-spinner Kumara Dharmasena among the two bowlers with having “suspect” bowling action, the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka (BCCSL) denied reports that he had been suspended pending further investigation.

“There is no truth in the speculation that Dharmasena has been suspended by ICC,” said Dhammika Ranatunga, Chief Executive of the Lankan board, in Colombo.

Though the board has been playing down the issue for the past few days saying it has not received any communication in this regard, the denial by Dhammika Ranatunga was more emphatic. In a release to the local press, he said, “We categorically state there was no ban whatsoever imposed on Kumara Dharmasena.”

ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya had told PTI on January 3 that Chauhan and Dharmasena were found by an ICC panel of experts to have “suspect” bowling actions and that the two boards had been “directed by ICC not to include them in their national squads till their actions were cleared.”

The Sri Lankan Board’s stand on the issue was evident from the fact that, flouting the ICC directive, it went ahead to include the off-spinner in its squad for the home series against Zimbabwe beginning tomorrow. Unlike the Indian selectors, who mercilessly dumped Chauhan for the three-nation tournament in Dhaka, the Sri Lankan board has rallied behind Dharmasena maintaining that there was no ban whatsoever on him. The Lankan board release however admitted that a letter dated December 19, 1997 from ICC chief executive Dave Richards stated that Bobby Simpson, the match referee in the recent Test series between India and Sri Lanka expressed doubts on the bowling action of their spinners, Muthiah Muralitharan, Dharmasena and Jayantha Silva. The letter was followed by a fax from the same official stating that the advisory panel on illegal deliveries had wanted further clippings of Dharmasena’s bowling action from the forthcoming series against Zimbabwe to be played here. “As for Muralitharan and Jayantha Silva, the panel had no cause for concern with their actions,” it said. “In conclusion the board wishes to state that the news item that was carried on ESPN that Dharmasena was suspended by ICC is incorrect,” it said.