Peter Deeley:Surrey dilemma over plea to drop Lewis (27 Aug 1996)

Surrey dilemma over plea to drop Lewis

By Peter Deeley

AS an aside to Pakistan wrapping up the series with victory in the third and final Test at the Oval yesterday, England are pressing Surrey to exclude Chris Lewis from their team for the crucial county clashes with Warwickshire later this week, although this could damage the London club`s double title hopes.

Ray Illingworth feels such a move would be consistent with the selectors` decision, 24 hours earlier, to leave the all-rounder out of the England party for the Texaco one-day internationals because he was late for practice on the fourth day of the Test.

Alan Smith, chief executive of the Test and County Cricket Board, made the approach to Paul Sheldon, Surrey`s chief executive, at the Oval yesterday at the behest of Illingworth, whose term of office as chairman of selectors is about to end. A Board spokesman said: "We have no power to force Surrey to comply. We can only ask them to recognise our feelings."

There is a Board regulation stipulating that if a player declines to play for England after being chosen then he cannot play in the concurrent game for his county. Illingworth feels this could be applied in the Lewis case, though the player did not refuse.

Surrey are in contention for the County Championship and Sunday League and the meetings with Warwickshire will play an important part in their attempt to win their first title in any competition since 1982.

They have already lost three players - captain Alec Stewart, Adam Hollioake and Graham Thorpe - to the Texaco series and Sheldon admits that to leave out Lewis would be a heavy blow.

"We will make a decision on Wednesday," Sheldon said. "We fully support the Board in the action against Lewis. We are very disappointed at what happened to the player but his disciplinary record with us has been good and he has caused no problems."

Surrey may turn a deaf ear to the Board`s pleadings and field Lewis. The club could argue that it would be unfair to punish an individual twice for the same offence.

Lewis has lost about #3,000 after being taken out of the Texaco side because of his tardy appearance on Sunday - the result of a puncture, he said, though the Board maintain his mobile phone was switched off and he did not alert them to any problems.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)