Cricket: Let's End Rules Wrangles, Says Pakistan's Woolmer

The Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer has called for the rules on moving fielders while the ball is being bowled to be clarified before Pakistan and England begin their three-Test series on Saturday.

Woolmer is concerned about the interpretation of law 47.1 - which states that "any significant movement by a fielder after the ball comes into play and before it reaches the batsman is unfair" - after the England captain Michael Vaughan twice moved his fielding position while the ball was being bowled in the three-day tour opener in Rawalpindi last week.

England won the match, against a Patron's XI, by 52 runs but only after the controversy of Vaughan shifting from slip to leg slip to catch out Ashar Zaidi during one Ashley Giles ball. Vaughan later said he did not think he had broken any law.

"We would like the ICC match referee and umpires to give a clear definition of how the relevant law is to be read after what happened," Woolmer said. "I can understand the principle behind the ploy by Vaughan but we have to be clear on whether the law allows such things before the Tests. We would like the series to be played in the proper spirit."

The England coach Duncan Fletcher has defended Vaughan's tactics, saying his captain "was just trying to think ahead of the game." But Pakistan and England have a history with this law as the sides were involved in a unseemly row in 1987 that featured the infamous Mike Gatting-Shakoor Rana finger-wagging incident in the Test at Faisalabad after the umpire objected to the England captain moving fielders as the off-spinner Eddie Hemmings came in to bowl.

Woolmer, meanwhile, had some good news in the run-up to the opening Test when Mohammad Sami was cleared to play in Multan after shaking off a leg injury. The 24-year-old paceman has taken 70 Test wickets and is certain to share the new ball with Shoaib Akhtar, who has returned to the Pakistan side after a 10-month absence due to fitness concerns.

"Sami is clear to play the Test, which is good for us as we will be without Abdul Razzaq," Woolmer said, referring to the experienced all-rounder who is recovering from an elbow problem and has been advised to rest for at least 10 days.

Woolmer has named a 16-man squad for the first two Tests including the leg- spinners Mushtaq Ahmed, Danish Kaneria and Shahid Afridi and the off-spinner Arshad Khan. The Pakistan coach rates his side as England's equal, declaring: "People may have made England favourites for the first Test but as far as I am concerned both sides start with an equal chance of doing well."