ISLAMABAD, DECEMBER 23: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has defended speedster Shoaib Akhtar, under scrutiny for suspect bowling action, and has urged the game's world governing body to defer a tele-conference slated for December 30 to resolve the controversy.The Pakistan board has lodged an official protest with the International Cricket Council for convening the tele-conference ``at a wrong time'' and has urged shifting the date of the conference, newly appointed PCB chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia said.Zia dismissed chucking allegations against Shoaib and vowed PCB will back him. ``If the move is to block Shoaib from playing international cricket or disturb his rhythm, PCB will go all out to defend him. We have communicated our displeasure to ICC and told them we want a change in dates,'' Zia told English daily The News.ICC took up the matter following a complaint lodged by New Zealand's John Reid, who was the match referee for Pakistan's three-Test series in Australia last month.ICC cricketoperations manager Clive Hitchcock sent PCB a video recording of Shoaib's action with an official intimation that a meeting of ICC's nine-member advisory panel on illegal deliveries, which includes Reid and former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan, has been convened on December 30.Shoaib Akhtar is part of the 14-member squad that leaves for Australia on December 29 for the triangular one-day tournament where India is the third team. Zia confirmed receipt of the video tape, but said, ``Cricket stalwarts who viewed it were of the opinion there was nothing wrong with Shoaib's action.''Zia contended that the tele-conference should either have been scheduled days before the team's departure or held after its return from Australia as it would bring needless pressure on the player when he was about to embark on the tour.The PCB chief, however, slammed the controversy over the bowling action of pacemen Shoaib and Shabbir Ahmed saying, ``We feel these bowlers have been unnecessarily put under pressure. Everythingis right about their bowling action and there are some people at the international level who do not want them in the game or want to disturb their abilities.''England plan for KlusenerDURBAN: England cricketers are studying videotape of South Africa's Lance Klusener in a bid to devise a method of coping with his batting prowess. Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, said three days before the start of the third Test in Durban on Sunday that the tourists had caught Klusener on camera and hoped to put the evidence they had gathered to good use.``We've had a videotape produced (of Klusener batting) and the players have been given an instruction to go and look at it,'' Fletcher said today. ``Nasser (Hussain) and I have already seen it. It's important that the bowlers see it and make their decision on where to bowl to him. We want to give them a bit of the responsibility instead of them being told all the time.''Fletcher said England had come up with a bowling strategy against Klusener for theearly part of the tour but implied that his players had not followed the plan, particularly during the powerful left-hander's match-winning 174 in the first Test which helped to put the home side 1-0 up with three matches to play.Ireland hire RutherfordDUBLIN: Ireland have appointed former New Zealand captain Ken Rutherford as their national coach, the Irish Cricket Union announced on Thursday. The 34-year-old Rutherford, who played 56 Tests and 121 One-Day Internationals for the Kiwis, will take up his post in the spring and join the Irish team for a pre-season six-nations tournament in Zimbabwe in April.His contract will run up to the ICC Trophy in Toronto in 2001 - from which Ireland will be attempting to qualify for the 2003 World Cup.
