ICC Technical Committee decision on ECB and Zimbabwe

The ICC Technical Committee today declined the England & Wales Cricket Board's application to reschedule its fixture in Zimbabwe on February 13

ICC Media Release

15-Feb-2003

The ICC Technical Committee today declined the England & Wales Cricket Board's application to reschedule its fixture in Zimbabwe on February 13. As a result of this decision, the Technical Committee has awarded the result of the match and the four points associated with it to Zimbabwe.

The full transcript of ICC Technical Committee Chairman, Malcolm Speed's decision follows:

Determination by the ICC CWC Event Technical Committee (ETC) concerning the cancellation of the fixture between England and Zimbabwe under the provisions of Clause 21.10.2 of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 Playing Conditions

The ETC convened on February 14th 2003 to deal with the issue which arose from the notification by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that it would not fulfil the fixture in Zimbabwe on February 13th 2003.

This decision of the ECB required the ETC to determine under Clause 21.10.2 of the Playing Conditions the following questions :

Whether the safety and security concerns raised by the ECB in explanation of its cancellation of the fixture were justified in the light of any new evidence or information. (i.e. which had come to light since the ETC hearing on 6th February)

If not, whether this Committee had to rule as to whether the England team is deemed to have lost the match to Zimbabwe.

If however the safety and security concerns were found to be legitimate

a. Whether it is practicable to reschedule the match, and if not
b. Whether we are bound to declare the match a no result.

The ETC hearing lasted 6 hours.

The ECB was represented by its Chief Executive and its lawyers; the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) was represented by its Chairman and its lawyers. ICC was represented by counsel assisting the Committee.

The ETC received an advance submission overnight from the ECB together with annexures. In addition it received comprehensive oral evidence from witnesses which evidence was tested in cross examination and further documentary evidence was received.

The ETC has carefully considered the evidence and the submissions. It has unanimously decided that the concerns raised relating to new evidence regarding safety and security are not justified. That is to say that those concerns cannot be regarded as legitimate within the meaning of Clause 21.10.2 of the Playing Conditions. Accordingly, the Committee has unanimously declined the ECB application.

Before providing the Committee's reason for its decision, the Committee notes that ECB's decision not to play in Zimbabwe was made on the 9th February 2003 but not communicated to the ICC until 11th February 2003.

The reasons for this determination are briefly the following:

The ETC accepts that the England players entertained genuine concerns regarding their safety if the scheduled fixture was played in Zimbabwe as arranged.

This genuine concern is not determinative of the matter. In this regard we disagree with submissions by the ECB. In our view the crucial question is whether the concern is legitimate taking into account all the circumstances and particularly in regard to the evidence and information supplied by those police officers and security professionals whose duty it is to organise and enforce measures to ensure the safety of players and officials.

A full opportunity was given to the parties to consider and to test the evidence and the reasons given to the Committee by both Deputy Commissioner Pruis of the South African Police Services and Senior Assistant Commissioner Zengeni of the Zimbabwe Republic Police. The effect of their evidence, which we accept, is that the entity calling itself "Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe" did not constitute any credible threat to the safety and security of players and officials and that there was no reason to suppose that the security precautions in force would not have been adequate to ensure the safety of all match participants.

We also note that the ECB did not produce any evidence which ran counter to the analysis and the evidence of the respective Police Commissioners despite having more than adequate time to make their own investigations nor was there any information supplied either by Scotland Yard or any other police force which contradicted the evidence and analysis given to us by the witnesses. In that regard the Committee also received evidence which confirmed that on the basis of the information available to Scotland Yard as at 10th February 2003, the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe did not pose a threat to the families of the England squad in the UK.

In reaching our conclusions we gave serious consideration to the arguments and submissions of the ECB regarding alleged discrepancies in the evidence and in the documents placed before us by the witnesses. We are satisfied however, that the criticisms of the ECB are not well made and we record that we were favourably impressed by the witnesses and we have accepted their explanations.

Our finding requires us to hold as a matter of course, that the England team in refusing to play is deemed to have lost the match against Zimbabwe and match points must be allocated to Zimbabwe accordingly.

To sum up the decision of the Committee is as follows:

England is deemed to have lost its ICC CWC 2003 match against Zimbabwe and the points are awarded to Zimbabwe accordingly.

Dated the 15th day of February 2003. Signed by:

Dr Ali Bacher
Brian Basson
Sunil Gavaskar
Michael Holding
Campbell Jamieson
Malcolm Speed

Independent member of the Committee, Michael Holding, commented: "Having sat through six hours of evidence and discussion during the hearing, I can understand exactly what the England players have gone through. At the same time, I had to look at what the senior police officers had to say on the evidence provided, and it was clear that they had no security concerns about what was presented by the ECB.

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