LONDON - England’s James Anderson and India’s Ravindra Jadeja will face a preliminary hearing regarding their International Cricket Council disciplinary charges on Tuesday, the global governing body has announced.
Both players were charged by the respective opposing teams following an altercation during the lunch break on the second day of last week’s drawn first Test at Trent Bridge. The ICC announced Thursday that the first stage of the disciplinary process would involve a preliminary hearing via a teleconference conducted by Australian judicial commissioner Gordon Lewis on Tuesday — the day after the ongoing second Test at Lord’s is due to end. The task at hand for Lewis is to, the ICC said, “address preliminary issues” before setting a date for a full hearing.
It is unlikely, although possible, that a decisive outcome will be reached on Tuesday. What could well happen is an amendment to the level of charge facing either Anderson or Jadeja. England were shocked that Anderson was charged by India at all and particularly taken aback that he was deemed by the tourists to have committed a Level Three offence — the second most serious under the ICC code — for allegedly “abusing and pushing Jadeja”. That led England to retaliate with a Level Two charge against Jadeja on Wednesday.