Cricket: Back Injury Puts Harmison Out of Pakistan Series

Steve Harmison's troubled summer continued last night when he was ruled out of England's NatWest Series against Pakistan because of a back injury. There is no cause, as yet, to fear that Harmison might join a lengthy list of doubts for this winter's Ashes series, but a scan on his latest injury is inevitable and England will be concerned at his wasted summer.

A fit and confident Harmison is essential if England are to retain the Ashes but he has been anything but. He missed the start of the one-day series against Sri Lanka with sore shins, which he now accepts will be a recurring feature in his career, and bowled indifferently in the final Test against Pakistan at The Oval.

An emergency meeting of world cricket administrators in Dubai to discuss the stand-off between Darrell Hair and Pakistan has been cancelled, meanwhile, amid fears within the International Cricket Council that it would only inflame a delicate situation, that it would undermine its own disciplinary processes and any decisions taken might not have legal validity.

Percy Sonn, the ICC president, abandoned the meeting of the executive board yesterday after receiving categorical assurances from the Pakistan Cricket Board that Inzamam-ul-Haq will attend another hearing, scheduled for late September.

Inzamam, as captain, was charged with ball tampering and bringing the game into disrepute by the match referee, Mike Procter, after the Oval Test ended in uproar nine days ago. Pakistan refused to take the field after Hair, the Australian umpire, penalised them five runs for ball-tampering and were therefore ruled by the umpires to have forfeited the game.

Shaharyar Khan, chairman of the PCB, confirmed: "We understand the need for the code of conduct hearing to go ahead for reasons explained by Mr Sonn."

The Pakistan board is increasingly confident that Inzamam will escape heavy punishment. It is Hair who has received most opprobrium, for his perceived lack of evidence in laying the tampering charge, for the allegedly brusque way that he informed Pakistan of his decision and for arguably calling off the game prematurely.

Sonn said: "Last week I felt it necessary to call a meeting of the board of directors to brief them on the end of the Test match at the Brit Oval and subsequent events. However, having had the chance to contact the directors, and seeing that they have an understanding of the situation, I have decided that this course of action is not necessary."

The England and Wales Cricket Board's policy has been to stay out of the dispute, and now David Morgan, the chairman, has no need to express an opinion in Dubai. The validity of that stance was supported yesterday by a peaceful Twenty20 here, with no problems among a 15,000 crowd, including about 1,000 Pakistan supporters.