Even as the ICC has asked Cricket Australia to rein in Ricky Ponting’s men in the wake of all-round criticism of their on-field behaviour during the Sydney Test against India, ICC president Ray Mali today said the removal of controversial umpire Steve Bucknor from the remainder of the India-Australia series was the “practical step,” which succeeded in averting a major political crisis.

“We recognised from the outset that the umpiring in the second Test was below the very high standard we have come to expect from our Elite Panel and we noted with concern the enormous reaction to it and realised that we could potentially have a serious international diplomatic incident on our hands,” Mali said in a statement.

Mali said the abject umpiring standard in the Sydney Test threatened to trigger a possible diplomatic incident and removing Bucknor was a practical solution.”By standing Steve down for the third Test we have successfully defused the situation, at least for the time being, and so what was a sporting issue has not become a political crisis,” he said.

“We could easily have taken an inflexible stance and gone toe-to-toe with those who were calling for Steves withdrawal but instead we chose to adopt a more diplomatic and reasonable approach. And on balance it was the right thing to do, for the game and for the series,” he added.

Meanwhile, Cricket Australia threw its weight behind Ponting and his team, saying sparks are bound to fly when the game is Test cricket and not “tiddlywinks”. ICC CEO Malcolm Speed was quoted by the Herald Sun as saying that CA needs to take notice of the criticism being directed at its team by the public, former players and commentators.

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