Dubai // Peace momentarily broke out within the executive board of the International Cricket Council yesterday as they adjourned from their meeting to attend the opening of the Global Cricket Academy (GCA) at Dubai Sports City. The board, which consists of the chairman or president of each of the 10 Test-playing nations and three leading non-Test countries, will this afternoon conclude a two day meeting in which they are discussion the ramifications of the spot-fixing investigation.
It is the first time the board has assembled together since the fixing furore broke during the Lord's Test between England and Pakistan this summer, which prompted the suspension of Mohammed Aamer and Mohammed Asif, the fast bowlers, and Salman Butt, the opening batsman, under the ICC's anti-corruption code. The atmosphere in the ICC boardroom is likely to have been frosty, given the presence of Ijaz Butt, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Butt's succession of injudicious statements did so much to fan the flames of controversy, as he first claimed that the was "loud and clear talk in the bookies' circles" that England had fixed a one-day international. He has since retracted those comments and apologised to Giles Clarke, the England and Wales Cricket Board chairman, who is also present at the ongoing board meeting. Butt was also quoted as saying "the ICC should consider sacking" Haroon Lorgat, the council's chief executive, over his handling of some aspects of the controversy.
Clarke, Lorgat and Butt did not sit together in the crowd which witnessed the opening ceremony of the GCA yesterday afternoon.
