Return of bell after being run out

The contentious run-out of Ian
Bell at the stroke of tea on the
third day, which threatened to
erupt into the biggest
controversy of the series, was
overturned during the break after MS Dhoni withdrew the
appeal. At the stroke of tea, Bell's run-
out on 137, after having left the
crease before the ball was dead,
was on the verge of becoming a
major point of dispute between
the two sides. During the break, England captain Andrew Strauss
and coach Andy Flower went to
the Indian dressing room to ask
MS Dhoni if the run-out decision
could be overturned. The Indians
agreed to withdraw the appeal. At the resumption after tea, Bell
and Eoin Morgan walked out to
cheers from a surprised and
appreciative crowd, which just a
few minutes earlier had booed
the two umpires - a small section of the crowd even chanting, the
word 'cheat' - and then the
Indian team as it made its way
out, with Strauss and his men
standing on the balcony of their
pavilion clapping the Indians onto the field. It all began when Morgan flicked
the last ball of the 66th over,
from Ishant Sharma, to deep
square leg where Praveen Kumar
tumbled over trying to field. The
batsmen, having taken the third, appeared to be unsure whether
the ball had reached the
boundary. Morgan held up his
arm to Bell, who jogged halfway
down the pitch and then
continued walking down. The throw from Praveen eventually
came in to Abhinav Mukund, who
took off the bails and appealed
for a run-out. By that time, Bell
had punched gloves with his
partner and was heading towards the pavilion. The umpires checked again with
the Indians as to whether they
had appealed. When the Indians
said they had, the third umpire
was asked to establish whether
the ball had crossed the boundary. The two batsmen, who
had reached the edge of the
field, were asked not to leave
the ground. There was a delay of eight
minutes as the third umpire
reviewed the replay and decided
that the ball had not crossed
the boundary. The decision of
"out" flashed up on the screen, and the Indians left the field to
heavy booing from the crowd.
The Sky TV coverage showed
during the incident as well on its
nightly news, a clipping of Bell
walking towards fourth umpire Tim Robinson and saying what
sounded like, "He called over." In
his media conference, however
Bell said he did not hear any
umpire calling 'over.' The Sky TV
audio track also has no sound of the umpire calling over. The only
time the word "over" is heard on
that piece of video tape, comes
from Ishant who, after the bails
are dislodged, is heard asking in
Hindi if the over had ended and whether it was time for tea. Just over an hour after the
incident, an announcement was
made on the stadium's public
address system, explaining the
incident to the full house at
Trent Bridge. The crowd heard that after Strauss and Flower
asked Dhoni to withdraw the
appeal, he went across to his
team-mates and sought their
view. The team agreed to recall
Bell to the crease and the decision was made known to the
England camp. The announcement
stated that the ECB thanked the
Indian team's gesture to
withdraw the appeal against Bell
and asked the crowd to show its appreciation. Once the
announcement ended, applause
rang out all around Trent Bridge. Speaking after the day's play,
Bell was appreciative of India's
decision to reinstate him, and
admitted that it was naive on his
part to leave the crease with
the ball still in play. "From Praveen's body language, it
looked like that had gone for
four," Bell told the Star Cricket
channel. "Probably naïve on my
behalf, but taking into account
the spirit of cricket and everything, this was probably
the right decision. It wasn't until
we [Bell and Morgan] reached
the boundary rope, when the
umpires asked us to wait, that I
knew something was on. It's fantastic the way India have
gone about this. The captains
and coaches got together, and
were asked if the decision would
stand. Duncan Fletcher and MS
Dhoni went back to discuss it with the team and came back to
us, and I got the nod." Rahul Dravid said the Indian team
was in unanimous agreement
that the decision had to be
reversed. "In the laws of the
game, if you follow them strictly,
that was out, but it didn't feel right in the spirit of the game,"
he said. "There was a team
discussion during the tea
interval, Dhoni and Fletcher
convened the meeting, and Dhoni
led it. There was a feeling of unanimity that we should
reinstate Bell because the spirit
of the game was important, and
that getting him out in that way
would contravened the spirit ... If
this had happened to our guys we would not have been happy
about it. So all of that was
discussed." There was appreciation from the
ECB chief executive David Collier
and the ICC chief executive
Haroon Lorgat, both of whom
acknowledged the appeal for the
run-out was a valid one. "The withdrawal of a valid appeal at
the tea interval was made in the
spirit of cricket by the India
team and demonstrates the true
spirit in which the game of
cricket should be played and the excellent relationship between
the ECB and BCCI," Collier said in
a statement. "On behalf of the
ECB I wish to express the
England and Wales Cricket
Board's grateful thanks the BCCI and the India team." Lorgat said the withdrawal of
the appeal showed great
maturity on the part of India.
"The initial appeal and umpire
decision may have been
acceptable to the letter of the law, the decision by India captain
M S Dhoni and his team -as well
as the Team India coaching staff
- to withdraw the appeal shows
great maturity. To see players
and officials uphold the Great Spirit of cricket, which has
underpinned the game for more
than a century, is very special."t

Hotspot and Drs future in doubt

The company behind Hot Spot will
undertake tests to see whether
the cameras can be tricked by
the use of artificial substances
on the edge of the bat. There is
a belief among players that Vaseline can reduce the chances
of a thin nick showing up,
although it has only ever been
rumoured that such tactics are
used. Concerns about the
effectiveness of Hot Spot came
to the fore when VVS Laxman
survived a caught-behind appeal
on the second day at Trent
Bridge. England were convinced there was an edge but Laxman
was equally convinced he hadn't
hit it. The third umpire said
there was a noise but it wasn't
clear from where. Michael
Vaughan, the former England captain, sparked controversy by
tweeting the suggestion of
Vaseline and Stuart Broad was
later asked and admitted
checking the edge of Laxman's
bat but finding nothing. Warren Brennan, the owner of
Hot Spot, has previously said the
device's accuracy is around
90-95% and can be impacted by
such things as bright sunshine
and the speed of the bat in the shot. He now says that it is
possible that a substance like
Vaseline could reduce the
technology's effectiveness and
tests will be conducted to try to
find conclusive results. "I would imagine that Vaseline
would restrict the friction of the
ball hitting the bat so if you
reduce the friction you are going
to reduce the Hot Spot,"
Brennan told cricket "That is pure and simple physics. From
what I can remember, quite
often the outside of the bat has
a layer of some sort of coating. "Now if you put extra layers on
the bat that might do the same
thing. As long as it is a harder
type of surface then you will get
the Hot Spot. But if it is a soft,
absorbant type of material then that will probably reduce the
friction. It might take us a week
or even longer to test all
possibilities." The other theory is that bat
stickers on the edge of a blade
can also help reduce the chances
of a Hot Spot showing up - by
showing one, long heat signature
down the side of the bat - but Brennan said it is likely to work
the opposite way and actually
increase the visibility of individual
marks. "What I noticed last week when I
was at Lord's was these stickers
down the side of certain players'
bats," he said. "When I looked at
it through the cameras it
actually looked like a Hot Spot, four or five little white spots.
That was quite unusual so it
must have be some sort of logo
or the sticker. Through the
infra-red I could see those spots. "I just don't know why a
manufacturer would put it on
the side of the bat that would
make it look like a Hot Spot. I
had this conversation with the
ICC less than a month ago and told them that we are noticing
some of these stickers tend to
reflect heat a bit like a mirror.
The ICC said if that is the case
they might have to look
changing the regulations so that the side of the bat does not
have any advertising, no stickers
and no logos. But that is still a
work in progress." There have been a number of
occasions when Hot Spot has
proved inconclusive in caught-
behind decisions. During the
Ashes Kevin Pietersen survived
at Melbourne, which incensed Ricky Ponting, while at Sydney
Ian Bell survived an appeal which
Snicko - which isn't used with
the DRS - later suggested was
out. Hot Spot has been made a
mandatory piece of technology
for the DRS system following the
ICC's meetings in Hong Kong last
month, where it was also decided
to make Hawk-Eye optional. The infra-red cameras have shown
themselves to be especially
effective at proving bat-pad
catches and whether a batsman
has been hit pad first in an lbw
appeal, although in this series DRS is not being used for any
leg-before decision

Pakistan has anounced its squard for zimbaba tour

Pakistan have rewarded some of
their consistent performers in
domestic cricket by including
three uncapped players - top-
order batsman Rameez Raja,
legspinner Yasir Shah and seamer Aizaz Cheema - as well as
fast bowler Sohail Khan, who has
played only one Test, in the
squad for the tour of Zimbabwe
that starts on August 28. There
are also recalls for opening batsman Imran Farhat, who
hasn't played for Pakistan since
the one-day series against
South Africa in the UAE in
October 2010, and left-arm fast
bowler Sohail Tanvir, who was last included for the New Zealand
tour earlier in the year. The squad seems to be an
experimental one, with the
bowling attack in particular
featuring several new names and
missing some of the senior
players. Umar Gul, Tanvir Ahmed and Wahab Riaz, who have been
Pakistan's three premier fast
bowlers in recent times, have all
been rested, with Sohail Khan,
Sohail Tanvir, Cheema and Junaid
Khan making up the pace attack. There is also a change in the
spin department with Abdur
Rehman being rested and Yasir
being given an opportunity. Pakistan's chief selector Mohsin
Khan explained that the fresh
look to the squad was an effort
to blood youngsters. "We have
to bring in young players along
with seniors so that they could be groomed," he said. "Because
it's a short tour we have
selected only one squad for all
three formats of the game and
have rested Riaz and Gul in a
hope to try out some youngsters." Adnan Akmal has reclaimed the
wicketkeeper's spot in the
squad, meaning Mohammad
Salman, who failed to impress
with the bat in the West Indies
and Ireland, makes way. Allrounder Hammad Azam also
failed to have an impact on
those tours and has been kept
in the standbys to make place
for Raja. Ahmed Shehzad, who
was dropped after the tour of the West Indies, has been left
out again. Another development is the
inclusion of Shoaib Malik, the
former Pakistan captain, in the
list of standbys. Malik has been
involved in a battle with the PCB,
whose integrity committee has not cleared him for selection
since the controversial tour of
England last year. Mohsin said
Malik would only be included if he
managed to obtain clearance
from the PCB. Meanwhile, legspinner Danish Kaneria, who
has taken his fight to get
clearance to the Sindh High
Court, continues to be ignored. Raja's call-up comes on the back
of consistent domestic
performance in all formats. He
was the leading run-getter in
the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Division
One last season, and was top of the run charts again during the
recent Faysal Bank Super Eight
Twenty20 Cup. His performances
in the T20 competition, which
included a 97 in the semi-final
and a half-century in the final, led to calls for his inclusion in the
national side. Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir and
Cheema were all recently part of
an emerging players camp at the
National Cricket Academy in
Lahore, where they received tips
from former Pakistan fast bowler Sarfraz Nawaz. Sohail
Khan and Sohail Tanvir both
brought themselves back into
the limelight during the Super
Eight Twenty20 competition; the
former took 14 wickets in Karachi Dolphins' road to the
finals, while the latter captained
Rawalpindi Rams to the title.
Cheema, 31, earned his call-up
through another strong first-
class season in which he took 57 wickets in eight games in the
Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. Yasir impressed with his 16
wickets in four games during the
Faysal Bank Pentangular Cup at
the beginning of this year, and
then took 3 for 29 for Pakistan
A against Afghanistan in a one- dayer. Farhat also did well in the
Pentangular, hitting a century
and two fifties, and was leading
run-getter in the domestic one-
day competition before that. Pakistan squad: Misbah-ul-Haq
(capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Taufiq
Umar, Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali,
Younis Khan, Asad Shafiq, Umar
Akmal, Rameez Raja junior, Adnan
Akmal (wk), Saeed Ajmal, Yasir Shah, Sohail Tanvir, Sohail Khan,
Junaid Khan, Aizaz Cheema. Standbys: Sarfraz Ahmed (wk),
Khurram Manzoor, Sharjeel Khan,
Mohammad Talha, Hammad Azam,
Shoaib Malik subject to
clearance

Afridi Noc could be Cleared meeting in islamabad

A compromise between the PCB and former captain Shahid Afridi is likely following a meeting between the board chairman Ijaz Butt and Afridi in Islamabad, bringing to an end one of the biggest player-board disputes in recent memory in Pakistan.

"I did meet Afridi in Islamabad but I cannot say any more than that at the moment," Butt told ESPNcricinfo. He refused to indicate if the meeting had an outcome or whether there was an announcement to be expected. A statement from the board later said no further announcements will be made.

Speculation indicated that through this agreement, Afridi will be given the No Objection Certificates he needs to play for Hampshire and later in the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL). In return, he will withdraw the petition he filed in the Sindh High Court against the board's decision to form a disciplinary committee, cancel his central contract and revoke his NOC and will face any punishment the committee hands out.

In effect, the situation appears to have returned to when Afridi first replied to the board's showcause notice, in which he accepted violating the code of conduct and expressed a willingness to face a hearing if his NOC was reinstated. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June 16 at the Sindh High Court and Afridi could withdraw his petition then.

The meeting is believed to have been the result of intervention of senior political figures; from the start the dispute took on a political character. Afridi had appealed directly to Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, who is the chief patron of the board, to resolve the situation. He had met Zardari's son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in London and had spoken to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as well on the matter.

Rehman Malik, the interior minister and mediator in past disputes, also got involved, promising on Twitter to find a solution. The flurry of activity prompted the PCB to issue a rare statement expressing displeasure at the political interference, compelling Butt to tell a local newspaper of his exasperation at the number of phone calls he had received on the matter.

Advisors close to Afridi are also believed to have tried convincing him to reach a compromise with an administration under whom he has publicly said he will not play again, after having been removed as ODI captain in May. Though Afridi was unconvinced at first, the possibility of losing out on the Twenty20 stint with Hampshire - who were looking at Chris Gayle as a replacement option - forced his hand.

"We've remained hopeful all along, and we are very hopeful that an announcement can be made soon," Rod Bransgrove, Hampshire's chairman, told ESPNcricinfo. "But we cannot say anything more definitive beyond that at this stage.

"We had to look at all contingency options, and Chris Gayle's name was one of those names that came into the frame," Bransgrove said. "But we have remained hopeful all along that Afridi would receive clearance to join us for the remainder of the Twenty20 campaign."

Amir confirms playing for Surrey club and Gave Justification

Mohammad Amir, the banned Pakistan fast bowler, has confirmed that he played for Addington in a Surrey Cricket League Division One match on June 4 but said that he took part only because he was told playing would not violate his ICC ban. His comments come in the wake of revelations in the Daily Star that the ICC is investigating whether he violated his five-year ban for spot-fixing by turning out for Addington.

"I was informed by club representatives before the game that it was a friendly match, being played on a privately owned cricket ground," Amir told PakPassion.net. "I asked the club representatives if the match fell under the jurisdiction of the ECB and they informed me that the match did not. I spoke to several club representatives about the issue and they all told me that it was a friendly match and therefore would not contravene my ban from the ICC. I was informed that I was fine to play."

Amir also denied that he had signed any registration documents with the club and insisted that he would never have taken the risk of playing had he known it was an official match.

"I would not be stupid enough to knowingly play in a match that I knew would contravene my ban. Wherever I am going to play cricket, the world will know about it. I would not be stupid enough to play in a match where I knew that I would be taking a risk".

Amir was central to Addington's 81-run victory in the game, against St Luke's CC. He surprisingly opened the innings and scored 60 before returning figures of 4 for 9 in seven overs.

This is not the first time Amir has appeared in a game which has had to be investigated by cricket authorities. Earlier this year in January, when he was under provisional suspension and still awaiting punishment for the Lord's scandal, he turned out for a Rawalpindi club to play a friendly game. That prompted the ICC and PCB to investigate the nature of the game before the former eventually concluded that it was an unofficial game and the club wasn't registered with the Rawalpindi cricket association; Amir was thus found to have not broken the ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct

Afridi wants contract, NOC reinstated befor going to court

Two days before he is due to appear before a PCB disciplinary committee, Shahid Afridi and his lawyers asked the board again for justice, which in this case centred around an appeal to reinstate his central contract and NOC before the June 8 hearing. Flanked by Syed Ali Zafar and Mahmood Mandviwalla of the legal firm Mandviwalla & Zafar, the trio refused, however, to rule in or out Afridi's appearance at the hearing.

Much of an energetic press conference at the Karachi Press Club - Afridi's first public appearance since his return on Sunday night from the UK - reiterated the demands of the four-page letter the legal firm sent to the PCB over the weekend, as reported by ESPNcricinfo. Both lawyers stressed repeatedly that they were asking only for a due process to be followed and that the act of suspension of the central contract and NOC withdrawal were punishments before the player had been heard.

"Due process means if there is an accusation against someone, he should be allowed to defend that," Zafar said. "He should have a legal representative there, his point of view should be allowed and a fair and just inquiry should happen and then a decision. What has happened is that a showcause notice has been sent, he has been accused of things and a punishment given. We say you can give punishment, but hear out our player first. It is a principle of natural justice."

Soon after he was sent a showcause notice, Afridi responded to the board and accepted that he had violated the code. But Zafar insisted that guilt or innocence was not yet the matter. "There is no admission of guilt or innocence," Zafar said. "We have only said, carry out the proceedings but that the NOC and the suspension of contract, take that back and listen to us first. After that, make a decision. They have acted without hearing us out. This is our position and this is the right legal position. We are hopeful that they will make the right decision. It is just the way they have adopted currently shows that they have judged beforehand."

In a press release issued a few hours before the press conference, the board said it would allow Afridi a legal representative at the hearing, one of the demands of Afridi's lawyers. But both Zafar and Mandviwalla said they had received no such communication yet and refused to say definitively whether that meant Afridi would appear at the hearing or not. However, the PCB's legal advisor Taffazul Rizvi told ESPNcricinfo that after the press conference, Afridi's lawyers had been told they will be allowed in, though they had yet to respond to it.

"If this process remains, then that [not appearing] is an option," Zafar said. "But if they really write a letter to us saying that a lawyer is allowed then we can think about it. We have no issue appearing but if this process remains, we cannot go."

Afridi's arrival at Karachi airport on Sunday night drew thousands of supporters. Indicative of his popularity and background as a Pathan resident in Karachi, the occasion even saw a rare unity among the city's strongest and constantly bickering political parties, the MQM and ANP. "I wanted to thank the public and the support I was given last night. People are saying that this is a political issue but when I got out of the airport, I saw flags of MQM, ANP, PPP (the ruling party), and especially the Pakistan flags. This is not a political thing. Many feel what I have done is right and that what has happened with me is wrong."

Afridi has been in touch with political figures through the mess, though he would only say that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari - whom he bumped into at a dinner in London, he said - were keeping abreast of matters. "They know who is right and wrong, this is about power and who has that we all know," he said.

Otherwise he reiterated much of what he has been saying over the past week. He was upset that he had heard of his removal through the media, he wanted his NOC back, he was not seeking a fight, merely justice. "I am not here to fight, I am a cricketer, I want to play cricket. I want what is my right," he said. "If they don't want me to play for Pakistan, but at least let me play domestic cricket or county cricket. I want my right, my NOC."

He did warn, however, of the implications such a dispute between player and board can have on both current and future players. "An example should be set for cricketers of the future. Many things were a problem under my captaincy, whether that is management or anything else, there were problems. Until those things are solved….if I come back and those problems are still there, they will only increase over time. Those things need to be cleared so future cricketers don't suffer and focus purely on cricket.

"There are other senior players who are having problems, but because of central contracts they don't say anything. They worry about their careers. It is not just me who has the problem. If I get out of the way today, one of them will come up. We want to finish these issues and focus on cricket. The way the board is treating all players is wrong. This is not how you finish player power, by humiliating them. I have played 13-14 years and I don't want to finish like this, I want to leave with respect."

Afridi Came Back Now For Hearing To His On Going Dispute

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi is set to return to Pakistan tonight in a bid to resolve his ongoing dispute with the PCB. Afridi, who is currently in London, is scheduled to appear before a three-man disciplinary committee formed by the board on June 8 in Lahore, to face charges that he has breached two clauses of the code of conduct with his retirement announcement and subsequent criticism of the board.

Mandviwalla and Zafar Associates, the legal firm representing Afridi, had sent a letter to the PCB on June 3 in a bid to resolve the on-going dispute between the two parties. At the time, Afridi's management told ESPNcricinfo that he would appear before the committee. However, some reports suggest that Afridi and his legal team may not attend the hearin

g as the allrounder is reportedly uncomfortable with an in-camera hearing that the PCB want, though this has not yet been confirmed.

Over the last couple of days, Afridi is reported to have met and spoken to a number of Pakistani political figures in London and Pakistan, including, apparently, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (the son of the Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari) and former prime minister and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. He has already appealed directly to the president to look into the matter, and the country's interior minister Rehman Malik has also got involved.

A measure of his popularity - or influence - emerged over the weekend as several areas of Karachi saw banners and signs appear supporting Afridi. There is the likelihood of his arrival attracting a fair crowd to the airport and there are reports that a rally will be organised in support once he arrives.
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