Calcutta, May 28 :
Calcutta, May 28:
Come June 6 (Day-I of the two-day Disputes Resolution Committee meeting in London) and the controversial Mike Denness, a former England captain, will be back in the news.
Though the Committee (Referees' Commission in its earlier avatar) was formed on March 15 itself, during the Executive Board session in Cape Town, the ICC didn't find time to schedule its first meeting. Now, at least that has been done.
As the Committee - comprising chairman Michael Beloff (QC), Wesley Hall, Bob Merriman and Peter Chingoka - will 'reopen' the Denness-authored Port Elizabeth file, any one or even all six of the Indians harshly disciplined last November could be called as 'witnesses.'
While Beloff chairs the ICC's Code of Conduct Commission, his colleagues on the Committee head the boards in the West Indies (Hall), Australia (Merriman) and Zimbabwe (Chingoka).
According to The Telegraph's sources, all six - captain Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Shiv Sundar Das and Deep Dasgupta - have been 'alerted' over the possibility of having to appear before Beloff and Co.
Except Shiv Sundar and Deep, who have no role in the rain-marred one-day series in the West Indies, the other four will be returning home (via London) right after the ODIs end, on June 2. Should either Sourav, Sachin, Harbhajan or Sehwag be required as a 'witness,' the concerned player will probably have to break journey in London.
One understands the tough-talking BCCI president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, will himself represent India at the Committee's first hearing. He should leave on June 4.
As of now, though, it's not clear which other countries will be represented.
Dalmiya, of course, took the lead in getting the Referees' Commission disbanded. Just as well, for it was hand-picked by ICC chief Malcolm Gray and would almost surely have taken an unsympathetic line towards India.
Gray, it may be recalled, had nominated Justice Albie Sachs (South Africa), Majid Khan (Pakistan) and Andrew Hilditch (Australia).
Incidentally, while England did put forward Denness' candidature for the recently-formed ICC's Elite Panel of Match Referees, the screening committee quietly (and sensibly) spiked that ECB nomination.