Kagiso Rabada fate in hands of judicial commission

Kagiso Rabada’s fate lies in the hands of a judicial commission after a marathon appeal hearing.

Kagiso Rabada at a post match press conference. Picture: Getty Images.

Kagiso Rabada’s fate lies in the hands of a judicial commission after a marathon appeal hearing.

Lawyers in three countries argued for six hours via video conference as South Africa launched its last bid to get the 22-year-old off his code of conduct charges and on to the team sheet for the third and fourth Tests.

A decision is expected by Wednesday. The Test begins in Cape Town at the Newlands ground the following day.

The hearing began at 9am with Cricket South Africa’s high profile legal representatives, Rabada and team officials in a room at the Marriott hotel in Cape Town — the same hotel from where David Warner gave evidence to the Phillip Hughes inquest in 2016.

Rabada was represented by respected South African defence lawyer, Dali Mpofu, who was assisted by junior advocate Kerusha Pillay. Cricket South Africa counsel Matt Kemp was also in the appeal hearing.

Judicial Commission New Zealand QC, Michael Heron, listened to their appeal against the Level 2 Code of Conduct conviction for “inappropriate and deliberate physical contact” with Steve Smith in the first innings of the game at Newlands and the 3 demerit points which resulted.

L to R: Kerusha Pillay (junior advocate), Dali Mpofu (SC), Kagiso Rabada, Matt Kemp (CSA lawyer), Dr Mohammed Moosajee. Picture: Twitter.

That and another one demerit point picked up for a send off of David Warner in the second innings took Rabada to nine demerit points — past the eight point threshold which triggers a two match suspension.

The ICC was also involved in the case via video link from Dubai.

It is assumed match referee from the game, Jeff Crowe, was also involved.

South African team manager Dr Mohammed Moosajee spoke outside the hearing but said he was restricted from revealing the legal arguments or witnesses.

The ICC has no interest in transparency with its code of conduct hearings and those involved have said in the past there is a lot of trade offs and compromises involved _ at least at the initial hearings.

“The hearing is done and took place from early this morning at 9am and it’s been a marathon session,” Dr Moosajee said. “But now it sits with the ICC and we have to wait for the outcome.

“I think in any hearing you’ve got to be as happy as you can be, we’ve put our side of the story across and now it’s up to the Judicial Commissioner to make a stand on what he thinks.

“The merits of the case we can’t really talk about because it sits with the Judicial Commissioner at the moment. So until the ruling is made it would be impractical for us to say anything.”

The South Africans are believed to have argued that Rabada’s actions weren’t deliberate and there is little consistency in the application of the ICC’s Code of Conduct.

“I think we’ll be able to comment on that once we have the ruling,” Dr Moosajee said. “We can have a proper conversation after that.”