ICC chiefs rule out star duo

GUERNSEY face the daunting prospect of possibly losing their two best players from next month's Euro-pean Cricket Championships. Special dispensation claims to use Guernsey-born and raised Lee Savident and fellow all-rounder Jeremy Frith were both rejected by the ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed in Dubai on Tuesday.

Within hours, Frith had been deselected from the inaugural Europe team to play the MCC in a one-day international in Rotterdam tomorrow.

Neither man was impressed by the totally unexpected news.

Frith said: 'I found out by email just as I was about to leave the office.

'Both ''Savs'' and I took it as read we were going. All the criteria laid down to us over the last 18 months we had met.'

'It's a real kick in the proverbials really.'

'I find it very, very bizarre,' said Savident, who retains his place in the Europe side this week because the match is being played under World Cup rules for which you don't have to meet the development criteria to play.

Guernsey had planned to name this evening their 14-man squad for the week-long European Champion-ships tournament in Glasgow.

That may not now happen as the management team deliberate on the Guernsey Cricket Board's soon-to-be-made appeal on the eligibility of both players.

'Both decisions are subject to appeal and we have to lodge them very quickly,' said GCB chairman Dave Piesing yesterday, still stunned that Savident's application for special dispensation had been rejected.

Piesing explained that there were 'two separate strands to the eligibility rule' and although Savident had been born and raised in the island until he was 18, it appears more than 10 years living away counted against him.

Frith's case for special dispensation was made under the development criteria and until April the GCB were sure he would be eligible for selection for the ECC tournament.

Piesing said he was 'amazed' Savident had been turned down but had been advised by the ECC that Guernsey had a strong case as far as Savident was cvoncerned. So does the player himself.

'I imagine it shouldn't be a problem on the grounds that I have a semi-professional contract and that I run my own cricket academy over here. That's why I've not been in Guernsey,' Savident said.

'We have a very strong case on Lee and it's 50-50 on Jeremy,' said Piesing.

Frith's case is complicated by interpretation of the island's housing laws and the fact that Guernsey people are issued British and not Guernsey passports.

Piesing revealed that until April the GCB had been told that British and Guernsey nationality is one and the same thing.

That, however, is no longer the case in the eyes of the ICC and while Frith has full housing rights, it appears not enough for the rulers of world cricket.

'We now have to lobby the ICC to accept our housing laws,' said Piesing and that will take time.

That would seem certain to rule Frith out of the European Championships and, Piesing understands, the same fate will befall Jersey star Ryan Driver.