Banned Gambhir may play
By Malcolm Conn in Nagpur
November 06, 2008
AUSTRALIA fear banned India batsman Gautam Gambhir may play in the series-deciding Test beginning in Nagpur on Thursday, threatening another meltdown in world cricket.
Ricky Ponting is worried Gambhir will be chosen despite International Cricket Council appeals commissioner, South African judge Albie Sachs, upholding his one-Test suspension.
"It's going to be an awkward situation for me to be put in tomorrow if we went out to do the toss and the guy who has been rubbed out has his name on the team sheet," Ponting said on Wednesday.
The latest outrage from cricket's billion-dollar bullies is reminiscent of India's behaviour in Australia last summer, when India had umpire Steve Bucknor sacked after losing the Sydney Test and twice threatened to go home during the Harbhajan Singh racial abuse controversy.
If India attempts to force the issue by including Gambhir in the team for a Test Australia must win to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, it would face forfeiting the match by selecting an ineligible player.
Cricket Australia claimed on Wednesday night that Gambhir's possible selection was a matter for the ICC, a spokesman saying: "Cricket Australia assumes the ICC would act accordingly."
CA and the ICC refused to speculate on the outcome if India attempted to play Gambhir. The ICC denied Indian claims it must respond to an official complaint from the Board of Control for Cricket in India within 48 hours.
"The situation is that he has a one-match ban and that's it," an ICC spokesman said. "There is no right of appeal to the appeal.
"According to the ruling all member countries signed up with, that's final and binding. Due process has been gone through and the matter is closed."
Despite the ICC's unequivocal stance, the Australians are planning for all contingencies.
"We have to be prepared for both," Ponting said. "That he is going to play or he isn't going to play."
The Australians can only watch in bemusement at yet another bout of Indian hysteria surrounding the worst-behaved team in the world over the past decade.
"Obviously a decision has been made that India is not happy with," Ponting said.
"It will be interesting to see where the next 24 hours heads."
Such is the force of India in particular and, as a result, the Asian bloc with the unquestioning support of lackey Zimbabwe, that even forfeits are overturned by the ICC board when it has no power to do so.
Pakistan forfeited a Test to England in 2006 by refusing to play after they were charged with ball tampering but in July the ICC board, with absolutely no jurisdiction, changed the result to a draw.
India's latest outrage came on Wednesday when Sachs rejected Gambhir's appeal and upheld the penalty of a one-Test ban imposed by match referee Chris Broad during the third Test, which ended in a draw on Sunday.
Gambhir was suspended for striking Shane Watson with an elbow to the ribs while taking a run on the opening day of the Test in New Delhi.
He was charged with a level-two offence for acting against the spirit of the game but should have been charged under 2.4 of the ICC's code of conduct for making deliberate physical contact.
With a previous conviction for violating clause 2.4 in the past 12 months, after running into Shahid Afridi during a one-day match last November, Gambhir would have faced a minimum two-Test ban.
The left-hander is the leading run-scorer in this series with 463 at an average of 77.16.
Given his spectacular impact on this series, India were hoping to delay the appeal until after the Test.
India's outrage was led by Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary N Srinivasan, who wrote to the ICC claiming Gambhir had been denied natural justice, even though he pleaded guilty to the original charge and appealed against the suspension.
"The said order has been passed without affording the player an opportunity of personal hearing, legal representation and without acceding to his request for certain documents/recordings to be given to him, and also denying him an extension of time," Srinivasan said.
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