Pakistan could skip Middlesex game

The Pakistan team may skip Thursday's one-day match against Middlesex to show solidarity with skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq before he attends a disciplinary scheduled for Friday, manager Zaheer Abbas said.

Lawyers for the team may also ask for the hearing to be delayed.

Inzamam faces a possible suspension of eight one-day Internationals or four Tests if he is found guilty of ball-tampering and bringing the game into disrepute when he faces an International Cricket Council (ICC) hearing in London.

He was charged after Pakistan failed to take the field at the Oval on Sunday in protest against a decision by umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove to change the ball and penalise the tourists five runs for alleged ball-tampering.

"I have spoken to Inzamam and some players who are contemplating not playing any matches until the hearing is held. The players want to see what happens at the hearing before deciding what to do," Abbas told Reuters from London.

He said the one-day tour game at Uxbridge might be affected.

Pakistan are scheduled to play a Twenty20 match on Monday and five one-dayers against England from Aug. 30 but Abbas declined to look ahead until the hearing is held.

"Let us see what happens but definitely the players are not happy with the charges brought against their captain," he added.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman, Shaharyar Khan said on Tuesday that they were consulting a British firm to represent Inzamam at the hearing.

"The firm which specialises in sports law may ask the ICC to delay the hearing and first produce evidence, the cricket ball and other documents on the basis of which they have charged Inzamam," he told Reuters.

"They may require more time to prepare their case."

PROTESTS HELD

The

protests by Inzamam and his players against the decision of the umpires have got popular support in Pakistan with the national media on Tuesday again wading into Hair and criticising his attitude.

The cricket association of Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, held a demonstration in front of the Press club on Tuesday in favour of Inzamam and against Hair while a religious group, Minhaj-ul-Quran organised a protest rally in Lahore, where most of the players including Inzamam live.

Chanting slogans against Hair, the protesters including children dressed in cricket kit, carried banners asking the ICC to sack the Australian umpire and drop the ball-tampering charges against Inzamam.

Abbas said he had inspected the ball which Hair and Doctrove had changed on suspicion that it had been tampered with.

"To be deadly honest I have played a lot of cricket at all levels and I found no such marks on the ball which warranted for the umpires to take such a big decision and cast a slur on our team," he said.

"The few marks I saw were definitely not inflicted by any person but seemed to have appeared after the ball hit the concrete many times during the course of play," he said.

Asked about media reports that England coach Duncan Fletcher might have complained to match referee Mike Procter about the Pakistanis tampering with the ball, Abbas said he was not aware of any such thing.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) spokesman James Avery said in a statement that "Duncan Fletcher did go to the match referee's room on Sunday morning. He was not there. He did not speak to the match referee, the third and fourth umpires were there.

"If we were tampering with the ball would we have a spinner bowling from one end?" Abbas asked.