With former ICC match referee Chris Broad making explosive allegations against the International Cricket Council (ICC) for flagrant leniency shown to India during his time as a match referee and talking about how the then Indian captain Sourav Ganguly did not listen to hurrying up the over rate, former Australian captain and former Indian coach Greg Chappell has revealed how former ICC president and former BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya offered to have Ganguly’s suspension in 2005 for slow over rate reduced prior to India’s Sri Lanka Tour in 2005. Chappel, who took over the role of India head coach in 2005, saw the 2005 Sri Lanka tour as his first assignment and Sourav Ganguly missed the first two matches of the Indian Oil Cup involving India, Sri Lanka and West Indies due to his suspension due to the slow over rate during Pakistan’s tour to India in April the same year.
“(Jagmohan) Dalmiya offered to have his suspension reduced so that he could go to Sri Lanka at the start of my tenure. I said no, I don’t want to rort the system, he has to do his time. Dalmiya seemed OK for him to miss.” Chappell told Sydney Morning Herald.
Broad was the ICC match referee during Pakistan’s six-match ODI series against India during the 2005 tour to the country. During the third ODI of the six-match ODI series, Broad had fined Indian captain Sourav Ganguly for slow over rate post the match, which Pakistan won by 106 runs. With the Indian team once again behind over rate in the fourth ODI at Ahmedabad, which Pakistan won by three wickets, ICC had then imposed a six match ban on Ganguly for the repeat offence. Ganguly had appealed against the ban, which was then reduced to four ODI’s. With him having not played in the last two ODIs against Pakistan, Ganuguy did not play in the first two ODI’s of the Indian Oil Cup. Although Broad did not specify the particular ODI match when Ganguly was banned, he talked about the ‘politics’ involved. “India were three, four overs down at the end of a game so it constituted a fine. “I got a phone call saying, ‘be lenient, find some time because it’s India’. And it’s like, right, OK. So we had to find some time, brought it down below the threshold. The very next game, exactly the same thing happened. He [Ganguly] didn’t listen to any of the hurry-ups and so I phoned and said, ‘what do you want me to do now?’ and I was told ‘just do him’,” Broad told The Telegraph in an interview.
Broad, who is father of England pacer Stuart Broad, had overseen 622 international matches across formats as a ICC match referee in his 20-year-old match official career. Broad’s contract was not extended post the solitary Test match between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan at Colombo in February 2024. Broad also talked about how India has ‘taken over’ ICC in many ways. “I think back to (Australian umpire) Darrell Hair, who was another one who was a right-and-wrong-type individual, and he was ousted because of his beliefs and that was a big learning thing for me. You try to be as honest to yourself as you can be, knowing that politically behind the scenes there are things going on. I think we were supported by Vince van der Bijl [ICC umpires manager] while he was in position because he came from a cricketing background but, once he left, the management became a lot weaker. India got all the money and have now taken over the ICC in many ways. I’m pleased I’m not around because it’s a much more political position now than it ever has been,” Broad said.
