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James Anderson found not guilty

James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja have both been found not guilty by judicial commissioner Gordon Lewis at the hearing in Southampton on Friday

James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja have been found not guilty of breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during their alleged altercation at Trent Bridge by judicial commissioner Gordon Lewis at the hearing in Southampton on Friday.
After a day of hearing evidence and submissions from both sides it was said the verdict could take up to 48 hours to be delivered but in the end commissioner Lewis, who had joined via Skype from Australia, needed a matter of minutes to come to his decision.
Anderson will now be available for the final two Tests of the series, which is level at 1-1, including his home match at Old Trafford that starts on August 7. If Anderson had been guilty he would have faced a ban of at least two Tests.
Had Anderson been found guilty he could have appealed but now that is not required by him as the only appeal against the verdict can come from the ICC chief executive.
"The Judicial Commissioner reached his decisions following a six-hour hearing, which took place via videoconference," the ICC said. "Witnesses, including some Indian and English players, provided evidence and were cross-examined by the respective legal counsels."
There was no official reaction from the ECB or BCCI on Friday evening, but Anderson's county, Lancashire, were relieved to know their hometown star would be available.
"It's a great boost for us and a great boost for England," Mike Watkinson, Lancashire's director of cricket, said. "Having an Old Trafford Test and Jimmy not being available for a reason like that would be unthinkable really.
"Following the victory and the way he performed, he's coming here with a bit of spice on the game which were all looking forward to. He looked fired up in the last game and we've seen he has little peaks and troughs like anyone else does."
Anderson was facing a Level 3 charge for allegedly abusing and pushing Jadeja at the start of the lunch break on the second day of the first Test at Trent Bridge. The charge had been laid by India's team manager Sunil Dev and was countered by a Level 2 charge laid by England manager Phil Neale against Jadeja.
Jadeja was alleged to have turned towards Anderson in a threatening manner and had originally been found guilty by match referee David Boon at a previous hearing and fined 50% of his match fee. After applying legal pressure India were allowed to lodge an appeal, which was heard today, and Jadeja was also found not guilty.
The ECB and Anderson were represented in the hearings by Nick De Marco while Adam Lewis QC represented Jadeja. The hearings were also attended by the two team managers, the ECB's managing director Paul Downton, the BCCI's Sundar Raman and MV Sridhar, the ICC's General Manager - Cricket, Geoff Allardice, and the ICC's Ethics and Regulatory lawyer, Sally Clark.