The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) refused to support India's bid to get a total ban imposed on sledging when the issue was discussed at the ICC [Images] chief executives' meeting in Kuala Lumpur last month.

The BCCI had proposed a ban on sledging after a spate of unsavoury incidents between the Indian and Australian players in their ongoing series.

But it was decided at the Chief Executives' meeting that umpires will use the ICC's existing code of conduct to decide whether a verbal exchange between players falls into the category of abuse.

A PCB official said India had introduced the proposal for ban on sledging but Pakistan's stand was that the ICC code of conduct had enough clauses to deal with the issue.

"We just feel sledging is a relative thing and although it should never allowed to go out of hand but umpires should  use the context of a match or series and its location to determine what constitutes sledging," the official said.

The PCB has been taking a lot of flak from former players and critics in recent days for its unstinted support and to every decision of the Indian board particularly over the Indian Premier League and Indian Cricket League.

The member countries have agreed that ICC will take a zero-tolerance approach to sledging.

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed [Images] will write to match officials, umpires and the heads of cricket boards to inform them of the decision.