The ICC today acted to stop the uncertainty about the India-England Test series going to the wire on Monday morning by giving the Indian board a deadline for its decision on whether to defy the ban on Virender Sehwag. The deadline is midday Friday, November 30, Kolkata time: high noon in India, and dawn in London (6.30am). The deadline was given in a long faxed letter to the Indian board president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, from Malcolm Speed, chief executive of ICC. In the letter, Speed set out the ICC's reasons for not giving Test status to the match between South Africa and India at Centurion, and suggested that the Indian board's concerns "be raised for discussion at the next meeting of the ICC Executive Board". Whether this would be enough to placate Dalmiya was unclear.

Full text of ICC fax

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