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The International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Malcolm Speed has defended the International Cricket Council’s role in the drawn out Inzamam-ul-Haq case that concluded last week.

Critics including former England skipper Michael Atherton questioned how the whole episode had been handled and asked why the hearing was held weeks after the issue in question on August 20 at The Oval, when Pakistan were penalised for ball tampering and subsequently boycotted the match.

The game was awarded to England when the umpires interpreted Pakistan’s brief protest as a forfeit, the first in Test cricket’s history.

Inzamam was charged with changing the condition of the ball, responsible for the team as Pakistan, and also with bringing the game into disrepute for the protest.

He was found innocent of the former and banned for four One-day Internationals (ODIs) for the latter.

“Everyone acknowledges that, in an ideal world, a hearing into any charges levelled at a player should take place on the same day as an incident, the player involved is found either guilty or not guilty in a room full of cricket people and everyone moves on,” Speed said on Cricinfo.

“But, for a variety of reasons that was not possible this time, not least because the issue confronting everyone involved the real world, was unprecedented and provoked high emotion.

“Processes exist for many things but dealing with the immediate aftermath of a Test that had been awarded to one side when the other was deemed

to have refused to play is

not among them. Cricket must learn from this experience,” he said.

“It is a source of regret that the matter became so protracted and that it involved lawyers as well as cricketers.

“But the delay in hearing the case, caused in part by the unavailability of chief match referee Ranjan Madugalle, allowed time for reflection and when the hearing did take place all sides agreed it was comprehensive and fair and showed the International Cricket Council’s processes are robust enough to handle even the toughest situations,” he added.

Source:The News