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India-England test match to go ahead Posted: Friday November 30, 2001 10:04 AMUpdated: Friday November 30, 2001 11:53 AM LONDON (AP) -- Monday's threatened first test match between India and England will go ahead after the Indian board backed down and agreed to drop banned batsman Virender Sehwag from the test. The ICC, the governing body of world cricket, and the Indian board reached the agreement Friday morning after marathon talks by telephone over the past week. India relented after the ICC agreed to set up a referees commission to examine the decisions made by Mike Denness against India, which sparked the standoff. "Please don't underestimate the issue that we faced because if we had not been able to resolve it ... there would have been a massive collision," ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed told a Friday news conference. "The structure of world cricket, the substance of world cricket was seriously at risk." Speed said he hoped the referees commission would be organized by next week in consulatation with the Indian cricket board. Comprised of at least two former players, the commission would report by the end of January in time for the next ICC executive board meeting in March 2002. Speed said Indian cricket board chief Jagmohan Dalmiya would bring his grievances to that meeting. But he said he did not believe the unofficial Pretoria match between India and South Africa that finished Tuesday would be reinstated as a test. "The ICC was prepared to take a common sense approach to matters," Speed said. "We have agreed to have this commission ... to look at this issue, to look at the procedures that were adopted by the referee. I don't see that see that as a dangerous precedent at all. "Any organization should be prepared to look at its procedures , to stand back and see if it got it right. If a mistake has been made, then let's make sure we don't make it next time. "I'm not in any way saying that I believe a mistake has been made. I've looked very closely at the procedures adopted by Mr. Denness and I am quite satisfied that he got it right." Speed said the referees commission would also look into whether there should be a right of appeal, a referee code of conduct and if officials could talk to the media. "The key to that would be to have the right of appeal where it could not be used to take unfair advantage," Speed said. "Sometimes it is difficult to factor in an appeal, we'd have to come up with a mechanism, if we are going to have an appeal, that avoids that risk." The dispute centered on the decision of match referee Denness to discipline six Indian players - including star player Sachin Tendulkar -- for bringing the game into disrepute in the second test against South Africa on Nov. 19. Sehwag was banned for one match for excessive appealing. When both countries decided to remove Denness from officiating the third test in South Africa, the ICC stripped the match of official status. India maintained the match was still a test and Sehwag, who sat out the South Africa match, was eligible for the England match. Denness is a former England test player. England had also threatened to cancel the tour of India and suggested it might call off India's test series next year in England. Former ICC president Dalmiya has repeatedly challenged the ICC's
authority over the past two weeks, saying the organization must
address the "grievances of member nations with an open mind."
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