DUBAI: Amid criticism that the governing body capitulated to BCCI's financial might as it removed controversial umpire Steve Bucknor from the remainder of the India-Australia series, ICC President Ray Mali on Wednesday said it was actually a "practical step", which succeeded in averting a major political crisis.
Mali said the abject umpiring standard in the Sydney Test threatened to trigger a possible diplomatic incident and removing Bucknor was a practical solution.
"We recognised from the outset that the umpiring in the second Test was below the very high standard we have come to expect from our Elite Panel and we noted with concern the enormous reaction to it and realised that we could potentially have a serious international diplomatic incident on our hands," Mali said in a statement.
"By standing Steve down for the third Test we have successfully defused the situation, at least for the time being, and so what was a sporting issue has not become a political crisis," he said.
"We could easily have taken an inflexible stance and gone toe-to-toe with those who were calling for Steves withdrawal but instead we chose to adopt a more diplomatic and reasonable approach. And on balance it was the right thing to do, for the game and for the series," he added.
He also made it clear that "no team has the right the object to any umpire appointment" and asserted "this decision was taken entirely by the ICC for the best interests of cricket."
Mali also suggested that the hearing on Harbhajan Singh's ban would follow its own course.
"It is also worth reminding people that the decision to replace Steve for this match had nothing to do with the Harbhajan Singh Code of Conduct hearing. That process is ongoing and will run its full course.
"As is his right, Harbhajan has appealed the guilty finding of the hearing. The appeals process has been part of the ICC Code of Conduct for seven years so there is nothing new or unusual about this," he said.
"...the entire process will be carried out in an open and transparent way. No one will be able to complain that it was not a fair and impartial process."
Mali hopes after all the bad blood created by the ill-tempered Sydney Test, focus would now be back on cricket in the series.
"Over the past few days there have been too many emotive comments from too many people and it's now time for the focus to return to the cricket," he said.
