The International Cricket Council (ICC) has postponed the meeting of its Referees Commission, which had been scheduled to take place later this week in South Africa. It was another victory for Jagmohan Dalmiya, the controversial president of the Indian board, who had called for the meeting to be postponed after he disapproved of the make-up of the committee to look into referees' decisions. Crucially, Dalmiya won support not only from the other Asian nations - Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - but from South Africa as well, giving him five of the ten votes of the Test-playing nations that make up ICC's executive board.

A press release from Lord's explained: "The decision was made following written requests from members of the ICC executive board. Directors from the Bangladesh Cricket Board, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka, the Pakistan Cricket Board and the United Cricket Board of South Africa have formally requested ICC president Malcolm Gray that the Commission be postponed until after the executive-board meeting in South Africa in mid-March."

Malcolm Gray, the ICC president, commented: "It is extremely disappointing that the work of a properly constituted Commission, established after extensive consultation with the BCCI, has to be halted because of pressure from within the executive board. However, as a matter of proper corporate governance the ICC president has a duty to reflect the wishes of board members.

"Postponing the Commission will further delay the formal review of important parts of the match referees' role. With the new five-man panel taking up its duties in April, this is a matter that required immediate resolution at the board, rather than further debate about the composition of the commission."

The members of the commission – South African judge Albie Sachs, Pakistan's Majid Khan and Andrew Hilditch of Australia – had been due to spend two days considering aspects of the future role of ICC's match referees, in the wake of the dispute over decisions made by Mike Denness against the Indian team in South Africa last November.

ICC's executive board is due to meet in Cape Town on March 15-16.

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