Date-stamped : 31 May96 - 10:16 27 May 1996 Illingworth may not see out the month Christopher Martin-Jenkins reports from the Oval as TCCB disci- plinary committee options are considered THE devil makes work for idle hands and the danger during the rain at the Oval on Saturday was that there would be further twists of various knives in the petty political world of the Test and County Cricket Board. Who is going to sue whom today, one wondered as the rain pattered down more or less remorselessly and the possibility receded of a quick dash by the Indian bats- men to try to overhaul England`s formidable run rate of 5.82 in the first Texaco international. More to the point, since legal wheels grind exceedingly slowly, how sustained is the latest attempt to unseat the chairman of the England selectors? It begins to look as though Ray Il- lingworth may not even see out his term to the end of Sep- tember, when he will retire in any case to the calmer waters of Farsley in summer and southern Spain in winter. Gerard Elias QC, the newly appointed chairman of the Board`s disciplinary committee, is currently considering his options in view of the request by Derbyshire, superfuously but signifi- cantly reinforced by Lancashire, to investigate critical com- ments published about Devon Malcolm in Illingworth`s book, seri- alised earlier this week in the Daily Express. He cannot make a summary decision, unless it is to decide that there is no case. If he believes there is, he must summon a hearing and that will take several weeks. The Board are rightly anxious to settle the matter as soon as possible, although it is certain that no action of any kind will be taken until next week, when the one-day international series has finished. When it has, Illingworth may yet decide that he has had enough of intrigue, and resign. If he did, his replacement would be temporary. John Barclay, likely to manage the England team on their tours of Zimbabwe and New Zealand next winter, and Illingworth`s assistant in South Africa, would be a possible caretaker chairman in a non-voting capacity. Alan Smith, the Board`s chief executive and a past selector, or Tim Lamb, his secretary of cricket and possible successor, could fulfil the same role until the David Acfield Working Party, currently looking into The Management of the Eng- land side and the structure of the game which supports it, re- ports in August. The argument against the chairman is that he did not try hard enough to stop his book being published until the end of the season If Illingworth decides that he does not wish to be pushed into a resignation, and he may well feel that considering he believes himself to be in the right over the Malcolm affair, Mr Elias will have to determine whether he has let the game down by dis- cussing players in a book during his term of office. He could not be disciplined for the criticisms of Malcolm themselves for the very good reasons; a) that he was not bound by any contract forbidding him to make them, and; b) that Malcolm himself, who did break his contract deliberately, was not pun- ished by the Board for doing so. The argument against the chairman is that he did not try hard enough to stop his book being published until the end of the season. The implication can only be that it suited him finan- cially not to do so. From the viewpoint of the publishers, Illingworth`s views, mildly and reasonably expressed though they are, are clearly hotter property now than they would be in the autumn. The strong lobby within several county clubs, which attempted two months ago to unseat Illingworth and replace him with Ian Bot- ham, with little thought about the latter`s suitability as a selector, has clearly sniffed a second chance. Had that lobby been in the majority, however, Botham would be a selector now. The first Texaco match was officially called off at 4pm on Satur- day, so each side win #4,000 and England will have no more than moral superiority to celebrate from the proceedings on the first day. Chris Lewis was duly named as man of the match and will hope to confirm the good impression he made with batting and bowling of similar irresistable verve in the second match at Headingley today. Despite reduced seating on the Western terraces, where drunken fights broke out during the NatWest semi-final last year, there were still 3,000 tickets available yesterday, but a bright morning in Leeds and the positive influence of England`s encouraging first performance of the season should soon put the necessary bottoms on empty seats. Only one day has been allotted for this game, with the two sides meeting for the final encounter at Old Trafford tomorrow. Both sides will want to have a look at the pitch before decid- ing whether to change their teams, but David Lloyd`s advance information from Andy Fogarty, the new Headingley groundsman who learned his trade at Old Trafford, is that the square is hard and that the ball will "go through". That, certainly, will suit Lewis, whose pace and bounce demanded respect at the Oval and whose length was sensibly a foot nearer the batsman than that of Srinath and Prasad. Well though the pair used the new ball for India, they might have found the edge a few more times if they had pitched it up a lit- tle more. Meanwhile, there was dissatisfaction in various parts of the Oval about an article ridiculing the efforts of Alistair Brown on his first international appearance. It is too early to write him off in view of the way the ball moved around in the air and off the seam in the early stages of the match. Brown`s first-class average of 45 may say more about the in- consistency of the bowling in county cricket than it does about his natural ability, but the truth probably lies somewhere between. Suffice to say that he will almost certainly get another chance today and that he will have to do something very impressive if he is to make a case for himself as a Test player. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http.//www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by Shash (shs2@*.cwru.edu)