Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Referral trial set for England-South Africa series

Players during the forthcoming Test series between England and South Africa could ask for decisions to be referred to the third umpire as part of a technology trial, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced at the end of a two-day board meeting here Tuesday.

However the global governing body said any such trial was subject to the approval of English officials and their South African counterparts before it could take place.

The ICC also announced that the 2011 World Cup in the Indian sub-continent would be reduced in size to 14 teams from the 16 that competed in last year's edition in the Caribbean.

It added September's one-day ICC Champions Trophy tournament was still scheduled to take place in Pakistan, despite Australia's recent postponement of a tour there on safety grounds, although it would first commission its own security review in June before giving the final go-ahead.

Meanwhile there appeared to be no change in the ICC's position towards Zimbabwe's status following allegations of financial corruption by administrators in the troubled African state.

The use of the third umpire in international matches is currently governed by the proviso that it is the on-field umpires alone who decide whether a decision needs to be passed on to the replay official.

However, concerns over the standard of international umpiring and a wish to avoid a repeat of the kind of controversy which saw experienced West Indian official Steve Bucknor stood down during the recent Australia-India series, following Indian complaints, have led to renewed calls for the increased use of technology in decision-making.

Former England coach Duncan Fletcher has been one of those calling for a 'challenge' system similar to that pioneered by American football and now in use in tennis to be brought into international cricket.

But the ICC said it had still to work out the details.

A similar experiment in English domestic one-day cricket last season was widely regarded as unsuccessful with the third umpire generally reluctant to over-rule his colleagues out in the middle.

Zimbabwe first went into voluntary exile from Test cricket in 2004 and has not played any matches in the five-day format at all for three years after under-strength sides suffered a series of heavy defeats amidst allegations leading white players had been forced out by officials who were picking sides on the basis of race and not ability.

But they continued to play one-day international and Twenty20 cricket.

A report produced on the ICC's behalf by KPMG, one of the world's leading accountancy firms, into the 2005-06 accounts of Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) was found said by the governing body to have "found no evidence of criminalitthe poor performances of other 'minnows' such as Bermuda and Scotland did little for the tournament.

For the 2011 event, the 10 Test-playing nations will be joined by the semi-finalists from the World Cup qualifiers, to be held in Dubai in 2009.

Australia postponed its tour of Pakistan last week after two bombs in Lahore, one of the cities where they had been due to play, killed 26 people.

The ICC said it would conduct a
"full independent security assessment of the situation in Pakistan"
in June.

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