ICC will not appeal against ruling that cleared England’s Jimmy Anderson

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/aug/06/icc-appeal-jimmy-anderson-england-india-cricket

Version 0 of 1.

The International Cricket Council has announced that it will not appeal against the ruling which cleared England’s Jimmy Anderson of breaching its code of conduct relating to an incident with the India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja in the first Test at Trent Bridge.

Last week the England seamer was found not guilty of any wrong-doing by the judicial commissioner Gordon Lewis, with insufficient evidence understood to be crucial in the retired Australian judge’s verdict.

Anderson had been in danger of facing a ban of up to four Tests if he had been found guilty of the charge of “pushing and abusing” Jadeja in the pavilion stairwell during lunch on the second day at Nottingham. With the Board of Control for Cricket in India unable to appeal against the decision, only the ICC – where India hold increasingly significant political sway – can act.

A statement on the ICC website read: “After assessing the content of the decision, the ICC is satisfied with the reasons provided and has elected not to exercise its discretion to appeal against the decision relating to James Anderson.”

The ICC chief executive David Richardson added to the statement: “This outcome is the result of two exhaustive and thorough disciplinary processes and, after considering the written decision, the ICC is satisfied with the manner in which the decisions have been reached.”

Richardson continued to note that the ICC policy in such cases would be looked into. “As a matter of best practice, the ICC will now review the procedures as set out in the Code and reflect upon the comments made by Gordon Lewis in his decision about how a case of this nature might better be provided for in the future,” he said.

Commenting on the use of offensive language, Richardson added: “International cricket is tough, competitive and uncompromising but we must reiterate that there is no place in the game for the use of offensive language that is personally insulting of one player by another.”