Ban `tainted' Pak criketers -- ECB chief

Ban `tainted' Pak criketers -- ECB chief
AGENCIES

LONDON, OCTOBER 15: Lord MacLaurin, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, will call for ban on Paksitan's guilty cricketers including all-rounder Wasim Akram until after the three-Test series against England ending on December 11.

``I'll be taking it up with Malcolm Gray, the International Cricket Council (ICC) president,'' MacLaurin said after Gray indicated last week that the ICC would postpone further action to let the first England Test tour of Pakistan for 13 years to go ahead in the interests of international relations.

``It's ridiculous. If someone is under suspicion he should be removed from the game until his case is heard and his innocence proven. If an England player were involved that's what would happen,'' he said.

Since the Qayyum report on match-fixing was published in May, Lord Griffiths has been reviewing the evidence as Chairman of the ICC's Code Of Conduct Commission to see if further action should be taken.

According to a report in The Sunday Telegraph on Sunday, Griffiths has apparently concluded that more severe punishment are necesssary and will tell the ICC board as much in Nairobi on Monday.

Cash crisis talks
Players' representatives will meet with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) later this month to discuss their concerns over the cash crisis in the game. A meeting has been set for the week of October 23 when both sides will outline their reservations after the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA) sent a letter expressing a vote of no confidence in the ECB earlier this week.

The PCA are concerned that the ECB may be forced to make cash cuts after suffering an estimated 3 million pounds loss this summer caused by several of the Test matches against West Indies finishing in two or three days.

`Walsh to tour Australia'
Courtney Walsh, the top wicket-taker in Test cricket, will tour Australia this summer with West Indies, West Indies' chairman of selectors Mike Findlay has said.

In a report on The Sydney Morning Herald website, Findlay said: ``We had a discussion on the telephone and he informed me he would be available to tour Australia.

``Now the selectors have to meet on Monday and come up with the touring squad. Courtney is yet to tell us if he will be available for One-Day games as well as Tests,'' he said.

David Richards' wish
NAIROBI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive David Richards on Sunday said he plans to settle in his native Australia after his retirement next year.

Richards, who was appointed to the post in 1993, said he wanted to devote more time to his family and was looking forward to a relaxed retired life. ICC will start the process of appointing his successor at its executive board meeting in Nairobi on Monday and the day after.

Warne gets a beating
SYDNEY: Shane Warne endured one of his more humiliating days hit for four sixes and outpointed by rival Stuart MacGill as New South Wales pounded Victoria in a One-Day cricket Cup match here on Sunday.