Monday, January 14, 2008

HOGG CHARGES DROPPED

India have dropped all charges against Brad Hogg.India on Monday dropped all charges against Australian spinner Brad Hogg, who was accused of abusing Anil Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the second Test in Sydney.

"We decided to withdraw charges because we thought Hogg's comments were made in the heat of the moment," Indian skipper Kumble told reporters after a reconciliation meeting with his Australian counterpart Ricky Ponting.

The meeting was convened by ICC's chief match referee Ranjan Madugalle, who was appointed after the fallout in the second Test to ensure that the series proceeded smoothly.

"Ricky and I have had a discussion with Ranjan and after that it was important that the game of cricket moves on," said Kumble.

"Like I said cricket is larger than any individual. It is important that we forget what happened in Sydney it was just one of those bad moments, just an incidents probably in the heat of the moment. And we decided as a team to move on and remove the charges against Brad Hogg. It's important that we moved on," the skipper was quoted as saying by the Indian media.

Madugalle met the team managements before meeting the two captains. He was hopeful that the series would go on smoothly and in the right spirit.

"Over the last couple of days we've had very useul discussions with captains and managers of both teams resulting in meeting with Anil and Ricky today. Both of them realise the importance of moving the game forward as opposed to reflecting on the events of the last week. And as captains they have the responsibilities to uphold the game in it's right spirit and play the game with mutual respect for one another," Madugalle told reporters after the meeting.

With the charges against Hogg being dropped, speculation is rife that Australia may reciprocate by dropping the charges against Harbhajan Singh.

No comments:

 
ss_blog_claim=a20aaf78ab953dd079a148ff83c4aa55