ICC apologises, says farcical finish in WC dented image of game

Bridgetown, Barbados, Apr 30 (UNI) International Cricket Council (ICC) today apologised to the fans about the fiasco at the fag end of the Cricket World Cup final and admitted that ''the incident dented the image of the game''.

''It was a sad way to finish the World Cup,'' said a much mellowed ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed while firmly ruling out his resignation in view of the farcical end to the final.

''We are sorry but there is no question of my resigning,'' he told media persons and added ''We accept that it was a very unfortunate incident, it should not have happened but now we know it was a human error so we are not going to overreact.'' He also ruled out taking any action against the four umpires and Match Referee, saying ''they have already accepted that they had committed a gaffe. They are apologetic, a little embarrassed ....I guess, and regretful but they are all seasoned officials and we need not overact now.'' ''It was a fundamental error which should not have happened but there will be no knee-jerk reactions or hasty action against the five match officials (match referee Jeff Crowe, Dar, Bucknor, third umpire Rudi Koertzen and reserve umpire Billy Bowden).

They (officials) have a future with ICC and rejected the comparison with Oval test fiasco, in which Daryl Hair had awarded the match to England against Pakistan last year.

''I don't think there is any comparison between the two incidents.

Hair remains with ICC. His contract is being honored by us,'' he added.

He, however, conceded the World Cup will be mainly remembered for the murder of coach Bob Woolmer and the chaotic finish of the final.

Speed said, ''It's too early to predict how history will view the tournament but certainly Bob Woolmer's murder death and the finish of the final are two things that will be remembered by the people who are avid cricket fans.'' ''Yes, I think it is. It was very unfortunate and a sad way to end what had been a great day of cricket,'' he said. ''It is hard to assess but it is not a good image for the game.'' ICC general manager for cricket, Dave Richardson, however took a tough stand saying the match officials and umpires had failed to cope with the pressure of the situation.

He confirmed match referee Jeff Crowe's statement that the confusion started when third umpire South African Rudi Koertzen, had mistakenly begun to talk about returning next day for the final three overs.

He also did not agree with Speed's view about the five match officials, saying ''We will be taking a hard look at how things went wrong the way they did. They should have known that once the 20 overs were bowled, it could have ended at any time.'' Speed also disclosed that the ICC was re-examining the lengthy tournament schedule and ''it is possible that the next edition of the tournament will be reduced by eight to ten days.

He, however, did not agree that 16 teams as was the case this time were too many, or that teams like Scotland, Bermuda, Holland and Canada, who lost heavily, detracted from the tournament.

''We have the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan next year which is where eight top teams play each other. The World Cup is where countries emerge on the world stage. Sri Lanka were nowhere in the first few editions of the World Cup and ended up winning it in 1996,'' said the ICC chief.

On the positive side, he said the legacy of this World Cup is the building of new venues and renovation of existing stadiums across the Caribbean. ''The region now has some outstanding cricket grounds,'' he said.

UNI