The Code of Conduct hearing against Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq for alleged ball tampering and bringing the game into disrepute will be held in London on September 27 and 28, the International Cricket Council announced on Thursday.
"The hearing would be held in London on September 27 and 28. I don't want to dwell much on it after having told the Pakistan team members as well as the concerned umpires to keep quiet," ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed said.
Speed, who inaugurated the official ICC Champions Trophy website, www.iccchampionstrophy.com, said even if no video proofs for or against the alleged code violations by the Pakistan captain were available, there are other ways to deal with the charges.
"The ball is an evidence. The evidence from the umpires (Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove) and people who have seen the ball (are there)," Speed said.
Speed also hit out at match referee Mike Procter in a veiled manner, saying the issue should not have been allowed to come to such a pass by Procter, which resulted in lawyers now being made party to the dispute.
"As per the laws of the game the umpires should be the sole judges of fair and unfair play. The issue is too simple and should have been dealt with by the match referee on the field itself," Speed commented.
Elaborating about the absence of any video evidence against the charges, Speed said in that case no murder or robbery charges can be brought against anyone in the absence of similar evidence.
"I am not saying the charges are equivalent to committing murder or robbery, but drawing an analogy if we require video evidence of every murder or robbery committed then the jails of this world would be empty," the Australian-born ICC CEO said.
"There are other evidences (to be looked into). It will all unfold at the hearing," he said.
However, Speed refused to specify whether any forensic evidence would be looked into to resolve the issue by emphasising that he did not want to dwell too much into the issue before the hearing.
"The lawyers of the Pakistan Cricket Board and the ICC are on the job. I don't know whether forensic evidence will be there," he said.
Speed also sought to play down the latest controversy to hit cricket, saying it cannot be compared in the same breath with previous crisis like Bodyline (in the early 1930s) or World Series Cricket (of Kerry Packer in the late 1979s) and did not even merit to get into the top ten of this list.
"This is a simple issue. It would not get into the top ten crisis that has affected the game like the chucking issue, Bodyline, World Series Cricket and corruption. These were serious issues," he pointed out.
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