ICC awards 20 points to Scotland for a forfeited match with Zimbabwe

Following the inability of Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) and Cricket Scotland (CS) to reach agreement on the date and venue for their ICC Intercontinental Cup match, ZC informed the ICC officially that it was forfeiting the match, ICC has accepted ZC decision and awarded full 20 points of the match to Scotland who now tops the points table with 89 points ahead of Afghanistan that is on the second position with 77 points and one match left with Kenya.

ICC’s decision will put Afghanistan in weak position particularly if it does not win all 20 points from its match against Kenya because if the I Cup final gets drawn in Dubai later this year, the Scotland will be declared winner.

 ICC says, “”late last week, the event technical committee (ETC) for this tournament had given the sides an extra 48 hours to reach agreement on this issue and this was ZC’s response.” ICC says since CS and ZC could not reach a decision, it has forfeited the match and awarded all 20 points to Scotland.

The decision will be looked at another unfair decision in the views of Afghan cricket fans after a recommendation was made to the ICC to reduce the 50 overs World Cup to 10 countries that Afghans thought may shatter their dream of reaching the World Cup.

“We wanted this fixture to go ahead and we did everything possible to facilitate an agreement between the two sides. We were happy for the match to take place anywhere in the world but the sides could not agree,” said David Richardson, chairman of the ETC and ICC General Manager. “It is disappointing for us and the ICC Intercontinental Cup that these two sides could not agree when or where to play their fixture and, for the integrity of the competition, these circumstances must not be allowed to happen again,” said Mr Richardson. “However, taking into account all of the circumstances that have been presented to the ETC in this case, we are prepared to accept ZC’s unequivocal and unqualified statement of forfeiture and declare the match as being forfeited,” he said.

CS Chief Executive Roddy Smith says: “Cricket Scotland notes the decision of the event technical committee. We are glad a conclusion has been reached on this issue and we are now very much looking forward to participating in the final. It will be a great opportunity for our young, talented side to experience the big-match environment of an ICC final.”

Now Afghanistan has to sweat to win another match to make sure it does not lose the final in case of a draw. People in Afghanistan already started asking why ICC did not award only half of match points to Scotland that would have ensured them a place in the final and would have been fair to Afghanistan at the same time.

Kamal Ranzoor, a cricket analyst and blogger in Afghanistan says “now the burden is an Afghanistan to win the 20 points against Kenya or to win the final and make sure it does not draw because ICC already made it difficult for Afghanistan. I think Scotland is half way to win the I Cup although Afghanistan has beaten it in the same competition.”

Latest ICC Intercontinental Cup 2010-11 table (as of 29 September 2010, following ETC decision) 

Team                          Pld      W        L         D         Pts 

Scotland                      6          4          1          1          89

Afghanistan                5          4          0          1          77

Zimbabwe XI              6          3          1          2          72

Ireland                         6          2          1          3          55

Kenya                          5          2          2          1          43

Netherlands                 6          0          5          1          15

Canada                        6          0          5          1          9