THE discipline committee of the England and Wales Cricket Board have decided to take no action against Jack Rusell over an alleged breach of his contract.

Russell had been asked by the board to rewrite a chapter in his imminent autobiography, Jack Russell Unleashed, in which he was critical of the England captain, Mike Atherton, and the former chairman of selectors, Ray Illingworth.

Extracts of the book were published in a tabloid newspaper without revision by Russell, who had threatened legal action to defend his right to give what he considered to be a fair appraisal of England's controversial tour of South Africa in 1995-96 and the disastrous World Cup campaign which followed.

Gerard Elias QC, the chairman of the disciplinary committee, criticised Russell's apparent threat to take legal action if he had been fined or banned for being in breach of his ECB contract.

But, overall, Elias decided that no useful purpose would be served in punishing Russell when he had merely stated his personal opinions on matters of no great secrecy.

Elias, in a statement, said: ``No complaint has been referred to the Board in relation to any published extract of the book in question.'' And he added: ``No attempt has been made or will be made to ban the book or its serialisation and neither has such a course ever been contemplated.''

David Graveney, the general secretary of the Professional Cricketers' Association, said: ``On behalf of the Association I'm pleased for the player's sake that this issue has been resolved. Jack can now concentrate on his cricket.

``But this is an area that needs to be clarified. It seems to me that there has to be an agreed period of time for the Board to review a book and talk over anything that may need attention.''