Statement On behalf Of International Cricket Council, England And Wales Cricket Board And The Pakistan Crick 21/08/2006

Statement On behalf Of International Cricket Council, England And Wales Cricket Board And The Pakistan Cricket Board After lengthy negotiations which resulted in agreement between the teams, the ICC match referee and both England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to seek to resume the 4th npower Test Match on Monday, it was concluded with regret that there will be no play on the fifth day. The 4th npower Test match between England and Pakistan has therefore been forfeited with the match being awarded to England. In accordance with the laws of cricket it was noted that the umpires had correctly deemed that Pakistan had forfeited the match and awarded the Test to England. At a meeting between the captains, ECB, PCB and ICC Match referee, the players, ICC Match referee and boards indicated that they would offer to resume play if at all possible on day five. The umpires having awarded the match to England and having consulted with the Pakistan captain reconfirmed their decision to award the match to England. The Pakistan team was aggrieved by the award of five penalty runs to England. The award of those penalty runs for alleged interference with the ball is under review by the ICC match referee Mike Proctor, whose report will be considered in due course. ICC will be issuing a separate report concerning action which may be taken in relation to the forfeiture of the match by Pakistan. ECB chief executive, David Collier, said: ” The ECB expresses great regret that the actions taken resulted in spectators, television viewers, and radio listeners being deprived of play. ” In light of the reduction of play on day four ECB has determined that all spectators who purchased tickets should be eligible to a forty per cent refund on their fourth-day ticket and a full refund will be paid to all spectators who purchased tickets for day five. “