Cricket: Rift puts heat on Snedden

By RICHARD BOOCK

New Zealand Cricket has moved quickly to defuse another volatile stand-off between two of the game's most powerful factions.

A meeting of the very strong, and apparently very unhappy, Asian Cricket Council has again raised the threat of a crisis in the game, one which could lead to a split between the so-called black and white members of the International Cricket Council.

Frustrated over what they felt was a lack of respect for the sentiments of the Asian nations, the ACC served up a couple of ultimatums at their Sharjah meeting, including a demand that New Zealand tour Pakistan in April and a call for an ICC Referees Commission to be shelved.

New Zealand abandoned their scheduled tour of Pakistan last year after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and are currently considering an invitation to return at the end of April.

To help them make up their mind, ACC president Tauqeer Zia has promised that India - due to tour New Zealand in November - will pull out of the arrangement if the Pakistan invitation is declined.

"This is not a veiled or open threat," he said. "We are all members of the ICC and should honour our commitments.

"We are not talking only in reference to New Zealand, but any country from anywhere. If they don't come and play in Asia, the four test-playing countries of Asia would automatically refuse either to visit or host that particular country."

However, NZC chief executive Martin Snedden played down the controversy yesterday and attempted to ease ACC concerns by reiterating his organisation's intention for New Zealand to tour Pakistan in April - security permitting.

Snedden said New Zealand team manager Jeff Crowe was due to leave for the sub-continent at the end of the one-day series against England to discuss security issues. A final decision would be made after that.

"I've been in frequent contact with the Pakistan Cricket Board," he said. "I met their chief executive last week, and they're aware that as long as the security issues are resolved, the tour should proceed."

Snedden, who described the outburst from Zia as "an unreasonable sort of ultimatum", said NZC always intended to honour its obligations involving the tour and believed in the spirit of the reciprocal arrangement.

The issue was also important to NZC because the credibility of the ICC's Future Tours Programme and the World Test Championship was on the line.

"The Pakistan Cricket Board have been bending over backwards to ease our concerns. They've given us assurances of the team's safety and we've even receive a written guarantee from the Pakistan Government, so there's no doubt that all possible safety precautions will be taken.

"Nevertheless, we felt it was still prudent to send our own envoy to assess the conditions."

Possibly more worrying for the ICC is the ACC's stance on the Referees Commission, which was set up to probe the penalties imposed by match referee Mike Denness on six Indian cricketers during the second test against South Africa last year.

India are unhappy over the composition of the panel. They have already had a proposal to delay the February 23 meeting rejected, but the ACC support may well force the issue to be re-examined at an ICC executive meeting in Cape Town next month.

The Indian board were initially miffed when the ICC rejected the names they proposed for the panel and instead appointed Justice P. Sachs of South Africa, Andrew Hilditch of Australia and Majid Khan of Pakistan.

With the four Asian votes - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - pledged to India, the ACC needs just one more vote among the remaining six members of the executive board to jettison any ICC ruling.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand management team is expected to consider only one change for tomorrow's third ODI against England at McLean Park, and that involves the possible inclusion of fast bowler Ian Butler.

The young Northern Districts paceman did not play in the second match at Wellington when the selectors opted to boost the batting, but could well receive his second opportunity tomorrow at the expense of Brendon McCullum.

England are also considering fielding much the same line-up despite their 155-run loss at the weekend, meaning opening batsman Marcus Trescothick will probably be retained as caretaker gloveman.