Days after Gordon Lewis’ verdict pronounced both James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja “not guilty” in the Trent Bridge altercation, BCCI on Tuesday requested ICC CEO Dave Richardson to appeal against Anderson’s not-guilty verdict.
The decision on whether to appeal or not against Lewis’ verdict lies entirely on Richardson, who now has five more days to do so.
Richardson, who was on leave, has resumed his duties at the ICC headquarters in Dubai and has received the written copy of the verdict by Lewis and is learnt to have consulted his legal team on the matter. The latest that he can appeal to ICC is by August 10 after which a three-member panel will be formed within 48 hours of the said appeal.
The former South Africa wicketkeeper has been entrusted with the task of looking into issue, since ICC chairman N Srinivasan has indicated that he would ideally like to refrain from taking any particular stand on the issue.
According to ICC sources, Srinivasan in his capacity as ICC chairman would like to stay neutral since India is involved in this incident.
Gordon Lewis – the ICC-appointed Judicial commissioner who heard the misconduct charges against James Anderson, said the England pacer was deemed not guilty as there wasn’t enough evidence to impose sanctions, which were severe in nature.
Gordon said he found the witnesses to be extremely biased in favour of their own team, and the only neutral witness — a Trent Bridge steward — said he didn’t see much.
Moreover, there was neither an audio evidence to establish the abusive sledging nor a video footage of the pushing incident in the corridor between the ground and the dressing rooms.
