Sports
ICC should change its laws: Richardson
ST John's (Antigua) | May 17, 2008 5:45:06 PM IST
West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) disciplinary committee member Richie Richardson finds International Cricket Council's (ICC) laws, based on which Marlon Samuels was banned, too stringent. Richardson said they wanted to let-off Samuels with a warning for being involved with a bookie and a ban is too harsh for him. "I think it (the ruling) is unfair. There is nothing we could have done. If the commission (disciplinary committee) had the authority what we would have done was to give him a warning rather than a ban," Richardson was quoted as saying in the The Nation. "But ICC are the one who set out the rules and we are guided by the rules. We aren't the one who banned Marlon for two years. We wouldn't have done that and we will be issuing a statement to indicate that law needs to be revised because it is unfair," he added. Richardson, along with chairman Justice Adrian Saunders, Lloyd Barnett, Aubrey Bishop in their ruling, said that they found Samuels guilty of "receiving money, benefit or other reward which could bring him or the game of cricket into disrepute." Richardson, a former West Indian captain, said be believed the ICC laws were not working to bring harmony to cricket. "I'm personally disappointed and I don't wish to be part of anything that is really going to destroy anyone's career unfairly," he said. "This (ICC) law seems to be made by somebody in an office somewhere who wants to be in control. "I can understand the problem we are having in the game with match-fixing and all of that. But Marlon naively befriended this guy or this guy befriended him and I haven't seen anything to prove that Marlon either deliberately gave out information or deliberately received funds from anyone." "It is just that he was in a jam in a foreign country and the easiest thing was to call a friend and ask a friend to help him." Samuels denied any wrongdoing but an internal WICB investigation found there was enough evidence to charge him with misconduct. pt/av (391 Words)17051636NNNN (IANS)
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