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ICC may offer olive branch to banned players

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday said it is likely to allow banned players to feature in domestic matches a few months before their punishment expires.

The provision in the players’ code of conduct will come up for approval in next month’s board meeting in Dubai and may specifically benefit Pakistan’s pace-man Mohammad Aamer whose five year ban expires in August next year.

ICC chief executive David Richardson confirmed that rules on banned players are likely to be relaxed. ‘The revised code is being discussed in the meetings and hopefully we could bring it to you in finality in the November meeting. There is a provision now in the revised code which will allow a player who has been banned internationally to play domestic cricket a certain period up from his ban coming to an end,’ Richardson told reporters  at the ICC headquarters in Dubai.

Under the process, if the provision is approved, a banned player will have to apply with the ICC to get permission to feature in the domestic cricket. The ICC will seek recommendations from its Anti-Corruption and Security Unit as well as from the home board and the ICC board before clearing the player to feature in domestic matches. Aamer was one of three Pakistani players, besides Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif, who were banned for five years for their role in a spot-fixing scandal on the Pakistan tour of England in 2010.

The trio and their agent Mazhar Majeed orchestrated a deal to bowl deliberate no-balls in a Test against England in return for money.

ICC backs chucking crackdown in game


ICC on Monday justified its crackdown on bowlers with illegal actions, vowing to only allow unorthodox deliveries like the ‘doosra’ within the rules.

ICC in its major drive to root out the problem of illegal deliveries suspended high profile bowlers like Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal, Sri Lanka’s Sachitra Senanayake, Zimbabwe’s Prosper Utseya and Bangladesh’s Sohag Gazi in the last four months. New Zealand’s part-timer Kane Williamson was also suspended in this period while Bangladesh’s medium pacer Al-Amin Hossain was reported for suspect action.

CEO Richardson said rules must be followed. ‘The principle has always been to make sure that we try and stick to the law which says that you must bowl the ball and not throw it,’ he said.
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