Healy no wish to 'dignify' deliberate stumping miss claim (10 January 1999)

10 January 1999

Healy no wish to 'dignify' deliberate stumping miss claim

AFP

BRISBANE, Australia, Jan 10 (AFP) - Experienced Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy has declined to respond to a suggestion he may have deliberately missed a stumping in a one-wicket loss to Pakistan four years ago.

The Australian wicketkeeper, who broke Rod Marsh's world record of dismissals in Pakistan last year, said here Sunday he did not wish to "dignify" the suggestion by commenting on it.

Pakistani lawyer Azmat Saeed put the claim to former Test spinner Tim May during the Pakistan judicial commission of inquiry into match-fixing in Melbourne on Saturday.

The 111-Test campaigner conceded four leg byes from the bowling of Shane Warne, which gave Pakistan a one-wicket win in the first Test of the 1994 series, a three-Test series ultimately won 1-0 by the home side.

Healy previously described that moment as the worst in his cricket career when the ball from Warne was charged at by Inzamam-ul-Haq, skidded low off the wicket and through Healy's legs to the boundary.

The umpire ruled leg byes but there were doubts whether the ball actually clipped the pads of Inzamam on the way through.

Despite Healy's name not being mentioned at the inquiry, the suggestion drew a sharp reaction from Michael Shatin at the inquiry as counsel for Mark Waugh, who along with Shane Warne gave evidence to the panel on Friday.

"I think it's outrageous to make an allegation of that nature without warning the person against whom the allegation is aimed," Shatin said.

When Saeed put the suggestion to May that the match could have been fixed he replied with "absolutely not."

"I've no knowledge of anything being done deliberately," May said.

The inquiry legal team returned to Pakistan Sunday ahead of further hearings on January 16, with a finding expected later this month.

Source :: AFP