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I don't subscribe to the view of banning Pakistan: ICC chief

September 30, 2010 09:06 IST

The International Cricket Council has no plans to ban Pakistan from world cricket and neither does ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat have any problems with PCB chairman Ejaz Butt.

"I don't subscribe to this view of banning Pakistan. We have to separate a few individuals from a team and nation," Lorgat said on Wednesday.

"If these individuals are proven guilty, I don't believe that an entire nation or team should be held responsible for the acts of individuals. There are provisions in the ICC that allows suspension of members but that is something we are not contemplating by any strech of imagination," Lorgat said.

Many former players including ex-England captain, Ian Botham have voiced calls for the ICC to ban Pakistan cricket because of the spot-fixing allegations against three players.

Haroon LorgatLorgat also spoke about his relation with Ejaz Butt who had called for the removal of Lorgat as ICC CEO.

Butt's strong remarks against Lorgat and the England and Wales Cricket Board came after the ICC had launched an investigation into the third England-Pakistan One-Dayer at the Oval following reports of suspicious scoring patterns during the Pakistan innings.

"I don't want to hold Pakistani cricketers responsible for what you might consider poor relations between two individuals and there is none in my book. I say the game is bigger than anyone of us and we are custodians of the game," he said.

"I will continue to meet him and will continue to employ tactics to make him believe what I think is right and what he should be doing," Lorgat added.

"But he (Butt) has to take responsibility for leading the PCB and for his own actions."

Lorgat also believed that Butt should not have gone public with his allegations against the English cricketers.

"I would have been more satisfied if Butt had made a direct approach to ACSU and provided whatever information and evidence he had that could have been helpful for relations between PCB and ECB," Lorgat said.

Lorgat also said that the ICC didn't act improperly by giving a statement on investigations into the third ODI. "We have to protect the integrity of the game and it is our stated position.

"We will not tolerate any form of corruption within the sport. We adopt a zero tolerance approach and in that respect any information we believe to be creditable we will follow up thoroughly to ensure we keep the game clean," Lorgat said.

Asked about the progress of the investigation into the Oval match, he said the ICC didn't name any individual. "We didn't name any individual. We received information which we are currently validating."

He also didn't agree that the Anti-corruption and security unit of the ICC was not delivering results in terms of its fight against match-fixing.

"I don't agree with that. We have got many instances where we don't want to publicize as we have to protect confidentiality of players who are sharing information with us. We work on certain leads, we don't publicize beause we have to look after the interest of the player as well."

Lorgat also said that the ICC was constantly reviewing the working and infrastructure of the ACSU. "We always review the capacity of expertise we have. We will do a review again as we consistently do that upgrading along the way."

Lorgat also said he did not heard from any member country that it would not be hosting Pakistan. "In fact I have seen confirmation of South Africa continuing with the series this year and I know New Zealand are confirming their Futre Tour Programme commitments."

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