Australia yet to be paid $147,000 from World Cup (8 Aug 1996)

8 August 1996

Australia yet to be paid $147,000 from World Cup

Australia came away from the World Cup more empty-handed than was first realised. Not only did it lose the final, but it was revealed yesterday that it had yet to receive its guarantee of $147,000 from the tournament organisers.

Nor has the West Indies, who, like Australia, refused to play a preliminary match in Sri Lanka because of doubts about security. Their boycott provoked howls of criticism from PILCOM, the organisers, an antagonistic disposition for the rest of the tournament, and a threat that $4 million would be demanded of both countries.

Australia has consistently said it would not entertain a claim from PILCOM because its baulking of Sri Lanka was not political. Australian Cricket Board chief executive Graham Halbish said the guarantee was a separate issue, and PILCOM`s refusal to forward it was ``unwarranted withholding of funds owing``. He would not rule out court action.

PILCOM chief and Indian board secretary Jagmohan Dalmiya failed narrowly in London last week in a bid to become chairman of the International Cricket Council.

But Australia fears that he will succeed next year, and further that he will then seek to move the ICC from London to Calcutta or Bombay, a move it thinks would split world cricket.

Last month, another Indian and PILCOM luminary, Inderjit Singh Bindra, reportedly accused Australian umpire Darrell Hair of racial bias. Bindra denied it last week, but he did not deny that he had accused Hair of consistently making poor decisions against India The demeanour of Bindra and Dalmiya will make for a tense atmosphere for Australia`s short tour of India in october. A preceding tour of Sri Lanka in August seems likely to proceed.

It was also announced yesterday that deposed Australian coach Bob Simpson has three new caps. He is to become a referee. He is also to represent Australia and New Zealand at ICC, replacing the long-standing Bob Cowper.

And he is Australia`s nomination to a panel to rule on bowlers with suspect actions. Simpson agitated from backrooms for a closer inspection of Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralidharan, who was sensationally called during the Melbourne Test match last year. As a referee and panellist, Simpson will be in a position to have a more direct say. He was a man never likely to fade mildly away.

Two other decisions at the ICC meeting in London are likely to raise the curiosity of Australia`s world-beating leg-spinner, Shane Warne, One decrees: ``A bowler placing his hands in the dirt or roughened area of a pitch may in future be asked to remove any grit from the palm before rubbing his hand on the ball``. Warne frequently brushes his hand on the pitch to improve his grip.

The other ruling reduces the so-called danger area on a pitch, where a bowler may not tread on his follow-through. This will give fast and slow bowlers alike more scope, and Warne perhaps an extra square metre of ``rough`` to exploit.

A move to have two independent umpires stand in Test cricket failed.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)