PCB on collision course with ICC

PCB chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia said, 8220;when the ICC met last month, nobody pointed out to me the Macpherson inquiry into the metropolitan police and it was only afterwards that I heard about it. If Sir Paul did not come out of that inquiry clean, I want to take up the matter with ICC.8221;

Zia said he wrote to ICC before the June 26 annual meeting and suggested that it would be better if the apex body appointed somebody from a non-Test playing nation, so there could be no accusations of favouritism or bias.

8220;I raised the point at the meeting, but was the only person to vote against Sir Paul. His CV was very impressive and a couple of people spoke up for him as though they knew him personally, but there was no mention of the inquiry,8221; Zia was quoted as saying.

The danger, according to a report in the Sunday Times,is that if PCB was dissastified with condon, it will refuse to cooperate with his investigations, prompting a general boycott by the Asian countries.

ICC chief executive David Richard led the members in favour of Condon8217;s appointment and it is believed that Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board also lent support.

Condon, who has been appointed to investigate allegations of match-fixing for a three-year term, has been instructed by the ICC to examine the transcripts of tapes made by News of The World8217; reporters in which former Pakistani captain Salim Malik alleged that he could arrange to fix matches during England8217;s forthcoming tour of Pakistan.

Condon is also looking into claims of match-fixing in a One-Day tournament in South Africa in 1994, an event in which Pakistan were involved.

Zia, who took over the running of PCB recently, said Pakistan would resist any attempt by the ICC to top up the penalties imposed by Justice Malik Qayyum, according to the report.

He said the Pakistan board had received legal advice that the penalties, introduced in May after Justice qayyum had completed the report, could not be applied retrospectively.

8220;ICC penalties are from now and do not cover the past. We have spoken with our lawyers about this. They say the penalties are for the future. We will have to see what Lord Griffths and his commission say,8221; he was quoted as saying.

Zia did not believe ICC had jurisdiction over a judicial government inquiry. 8220;If the Pakistan board had run the inquiry, then it would be different. But if ICC requests an increase in the penalties, the government would tell me to go to hell.8221;