Manchester: The BCCI may be pressing for a harsh punishment against James Anderson but former India wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer said the England pacer does not merit a four-match ban for his spat with Ravindra Jadeja and suggested that he would have sorted out the issue in minutes.
Engineer, a former ICC match referee, said that even though he was not aware of the details of the altercation, he cannot believe that the Indians would have wanted Anderson to be banned.
"It's a narrow corridor in the dressing rooms there. MS Dhoni says he saw Jimmy push Jadeja and, if that's the case, Jimmy's been a bit naughty. But it certainly doesn't merit a four-match suspension," Engineer was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
The former India stumper is also not amused with the issue being dragged for so long and weighing on the series.
"It's ridiculous that it has all dragged on for so long. I blame the match referee (David Boon) and the ICC. If I'd been the match referee - and I used to be one - I'd have had Jimmy and Jadeja into my room there and then, asked them to sort it out between them and, if Jimmy was at fault, I'd have asked him to apologise. If he refused, then it could have been an issue but it should have all been sorted out in five minutes," Engineer said.
"I must stress that I don't know what happened in that corridor at Trent Bridge," he added.
"I really can't believe the Indians would have wanted Jimmy to be banned because, as an Indian who still wants India to win, even in Lancashire ... I wouldn't regard it as a proper win unless they beat the full England team," he opined.
Engineer, who spent nine seasons with Lancashire from 1968 to 1976, even remembers offering Anderson some friendly advice when running into him at the christening of one of Andrew Flintoff's children several years ago.
