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Illingworth makes final bid to clear his name

Rediff on the Net

2nd Sept 1996

On Tuesday, chairman of the England selectors goes up before the appeals panel of the International Cricket Council to make one last bid to leave the game with his good name intact.

At Lord's, the panel will review Illy's request that the 2,000 pound fine handed out by the TCCB disciplinary committee in June be quashed.

The disciplinary committee had found him guilty of bringing the game into dispute via newspaper articles that were based on his controversial book, 'One-Man Committee'. Illy was also charged with making public statements that were possibly prejudicial to the interests of cricket - the passages detailing his falling out with England pace bowler Devon Malcolm during the 1995 winter tour of South Africa, and his detailing of the workings of the selection committee, being instances in point.

The disciplinary committee gave him 28 days to file an appeal, and the 64-year-old former captain of England decided to fight it out to the very end.

The argument Illy will put before the four man ICC panel is that the details disclosed in the book merely reply to Malcolm's allegations against him, made in a newspaper article.

The panel will be chaired by Judge Desmond Perrett, QC, and will include former TCCB chairman Frank Chamberlain, National Cricket Association chairman Frank Elliott, and former Middlesex fast bowler and presently treasurer of the MCC, John Warr.

Source: Rediff On The NeT
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Date-stamped : 25 Feb1998 - 18:48