Du Plessis hearing scheduled for Tuesday

The ICC has decided it will hold South Africa captain Faf du Plessis’ hearing for a ball-tampering charge on November 22 at 1530 local time in Adelaide*. Andy Pycroft, the match referee during the second Test, held a preliminary hearing on Monday to hear the submissions of the parties regarding when the hearing should take place and decided to hold it before the third Test, that starts on November 24, “in the interests of expediency and in order to protect the integrity of the Adelaide Test”.

It was earlier expected that the hearing would take place after the third Test was over. A major reason for the initially expected delay was Cricket South Africa saying they have engaged legal representation for du Plessis ahead of the hearing. This takes proceedings outside the usual territory, in which a player and team management deals directly with the relevant ICC match referee, and calls for the governing body to also engage lawyers.

The convention of engaging lawyers if necessary has been in place ever since former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Rantunga brought lawyers to a hearing in Perth after he was charged with bringing the game into disrepute. He was accused of holding up play after Muttiah Muralitharan was called for throwing by umpire Ross Emerson during an ODI in Adelaide in January 1999.

The match referee for that series, Peter van der Merwe, was left to give Ranatunga a watered-down suspended sentence after being threatened with legal action, and the ICC have …

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