Ganguly ban could yet come up for arbitration

Sourav Ganguly's six-match ban, which was upheld by Michael Beloff, the ICC's appeals commissioner, could yet come up for arbitration according to an Indian newspaper report. Ehsan Mani had earlier denied that the issue had been debated, but The Telegraph, based in Kolkata, claimed that a source had told them: "An arbiter is going to be appointed. One will soon know who stands where..."

The paper also quoted another source as saying: "Strictly technically, the Executive Board took up the BCCI's objection to the application of the Code of Conduct provisions and Sourav wasn't specifically named in the deliberations..."

The ICC's official stand is that they await a response from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, but it would be an extreme step to overturn the ban, with Ganguly already having sat out two matches. In the past, transgressions of the Code of Conduct have never come up for review once an appeals commissioner upheld the ban.

Ganguly, who stands to miss four more games, ruling him out of the one-day tournament in Sri Lanka, was still clueless as to his fate, saying: "Till now, I haven't heard anything and, so, wouldn't like to say anything."

Since then the ICC has made it clear that no further action would be taken on the case till the Indian board puts forward its point in a written communication. A spokesperson said in a media release, "The ICC, through its President Ehsan Mani, has agreed that should the BCCI wish to take this matter further it must write to the ICC which would then refer this to the ICC Disputes Resolution Committee."