It's Just Not Cricket!
Hey yaars,
It's been a busy few days at work, and at the behest of a few of my readers I decided I'd try to keep everyone up to speed on my goings and happenings. I may be the only person I know who's keeping up to date on Hair-Gate, so here's my best explanation of things...
Last sunday During the Fourth Day of the Fourth Test Match Between England and Pakistan at the Oval, play was stopped as umpire Darrell Hair decided to give England an extra 5 runs and decided to change the ball. The reason given by Hair for his decision was that he believed Pakistan to have tampered with the ball illegally.
With such an allegation - essentially accusing the Pakistan team of cheating - Inzamam ul-Huq lead his troops off the field in protest. The umpires asked if Pakistan was planning on returning to play, our captain Inzamam retorted by asking why the umpire had changed the ball. The umpire said he wasn't there to answer questions and left to go onto the field and take off the bails of the wicket, signifying the end of the match - i.e. Pakistan's forfeiture. Of course matters became more confused as the Pakistani's minutes later came on the field ready to play! It went down in the record books as the first forfeiture in international cricket in 129 years.
With such an allegation - essentially accusing the Pakistan team of cheating - Inzamam ul-Huq lead his troops off the field in protest. The umpires asked if Pakistan was planning on returning to play, our captain Inzamam retorted by asking why the umpire had changed the ball. The umpire said he wasn't there to answer questions and left to go onto the field and take off the bails of the wicket, signifying the end of the match - i.e. Pakistan's forfeiture. Of course matters became more confused as the Pakistani's minutes later came on the field ready to play! It went down in the record books as the first forfeiture in international cricket in 129 years.
Ball-tampering is used by bowlers in cricket to gain an advantage in something called "reverse swinging" the ball. By keeping one side of the ball shiny by polishing it while at the same time roughening up the other half, it allows a bowler to pitch a ball in a way that it swings in air towards or away from a batsman at extraordinary depths. It's an art which was brought into the game by Pakistan in the 1970s and for decades was considered a dark art/cheat tactic/taboo until it's secrets were revealed about 5 years ago.
Finally when our players of the past decades get some proper recognition for their brilliance, the current crop is being mud-slinged at. I say this with confidence because despite the umpires' decision, not one of Sky Sports' 26 cameras at the ground had any evidence of a Pakistani player acting diabolically. Along with this, the umpire heeded no warning to the Pakistan team to any suspicion of ball tampering, cold-handedly pointing the accusatory finger with a McCarthy-ist demeanour!
What makes things worse in this story is that this isn't the first time this umpire has been in controversy before. Years back he "no-balled" Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan 7 times in three overs from the other end - which is akin to the first base umpire calling a pitcher balking three times in an inning. On top of that, the Pakistan team lodged a complaint about his umpiring earlier this year. I'm not saying he has it in for Asian teams, but he isn't exactly enamoured by them either.
The juciest part though? The fact that after the incident last sunday, he sent an email to cricket's head honchos offering his resignation (and silence) for the princely sum of $500,000. That's a pretty big price to ask for coming from an umpire who re-iterated that he was impartial in the matter and was only doing his job. Let's just say it's pretty obvious something is rotten....
I figured I'd put my two cents in as it's the talk of the English Press these days. It even made the front page of Tuesday's LA times!
Alright, I planned on writing more, but I'm just too sleepy! Talk to y'all later!
Finally when our players of the past decades get some proper recognition for their brilliance, the current crop is being mud-slinged at. I say this with confidence because despite the umpires' decision, not one of Sky Sports' 26 cameras at the ground had any evidence of a Pakistani player acting diabolically. Along with this, the umpire heeded no warning to the Pakistan team to any suspicion of ball tampering, cold-handedly pointing the accusatory finger with a McCarthy-ist demeanour!
What makes things worse in this story is that this isn't the first time this umpire has been in controversy before. Years back he "no-balled" Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan 7 times in three overs from the other end - which is akin to the first base umpire calling a pitcher balking three times in an inning. On top of that, the Pakistan team lodged a complaint about his umpiring earlier this year. I'm not saying he has it in for Asian teams, but he isn't exactly enamoured by them either.
The juciest part though? The fact that after the incident last sunday, he sent an email to cricket's head honchos offering his resignation (and silence) for the princely sum of $500,000. That's a pretty big price to ask for coming from an umpire who re-iterated that he was impartial in the matter and was only doing his job. Let's just say it's pretty obvious something is rotten....
I figured I'd put my two cents in as it's the talk of the English Press these days. It even made the front page of Tuesday's LA times!
Alright, I planned on writing more, but I'm just too sleepy! Talk to y'all later!
posted by Naveed at
4:01 AM
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