Hair today, gone tomorrow?
Well someone had to make the joke. Darrell Hair has finally spoken up (in as much as the media have finally managed to print something) and has basically said what we were all thinking. Like everyone else involved in the whole saga, he’s sticking to his guns. He’s said he was just doing his job as well as believing he was right. Was he? Well that’s what the poll is for. So get voting.
Quite how this has angered the whole sub-continent, though, is quite beyond me. Whilst controversial, you can’t argue with the fact that Hair was simply doing his job. Yes, the question over evidence of ball tampering is still up in the air, but that’ll be resolved one way or the other sooner or later. But after the accusations was made, the penalty runs were added and the ball switched, Hair did conduct himself professionally. He stuck to the law – the laws that govern the game of Cricket as we know it – and did things by the book. Inzy, Pakistan, and now Sri Lanka and potentially India, are arguably in the wrong to think they can boycott the system on these grounds, much less accuse Hair of being racist.
Surely such accusations are on a par with Hair implying that Pakistan are cheating? Both parties have history – Pakistan have previously been charged with ball tampering, Hair has previously been involved with dodgy decisions whilst umpiring in the sub-continent.
Regardless, Hair has said he’ll keep umpiring as long as the ICC want him. Whether they buckle under the pressure and say that he won’t umpire in any matches involving the sub-continent remains to be seen. Hopefully, though, the ICC won’t be listening to Dick French, former Australian umpire when deciding which matches he will stand in. When commenting on whether Hair should officiate or not, he shrewdly observed that:
“He can’t umpire Australia as a neutral, so he can’t then just umpire South Africa, the West Indies and England for the rest of his career.”
(link)
I’m guessing New Zealand will be thrilled to know the least of their worries will be the umpires, considering it seems they’ve been booted out of the International arena by Mr French.
I feel for Pakistan. I could have been handled better. But to refuse to return to the field after the tea break was totally unacceptable.
It is arguable topic whether Hair is racist or not. However, the central point is that whatever he did, was not beyond the law and this point, first, should be investigated for the sake of the game Cricket. This is true that Hair was involved with the controversy of Muralitharan (one of the greatest spinner of the Cricket history).