Ovalgate takes a cruel twist

Won’t this thing just die? In yet another twist, that is, after the ICC announced that they’d moreorless sacked Darrel Hair, and then said he was their second-best, he’s now been voted #1 Umpire in the World by Wisden, receiving 34% of the vote ahead of Simon Taufel with 16%.

Now, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the stats have been somewhat skewed by recent events, and that no doubt cynical non-Pakistani punters will undoubtedly have voted for Hair just for the heck of it.

But whether he is the number 1 umpire in the world, or more realistically number 2, it still raises questions over how the ICC could have sacked him in the first place. Then the smug git took his opportunity to have a stab at his enemies:

“I suppose it is a bit of a shock,” Hair told the magazine. “But if free-thinking people want to vote that way and they do believe I’ve done the job as well as anybody or even better I can accept that fact. It’s a great vote of confidence.”

Well there you go. Pakistan got they wanted. Hair will moreorless get what he wants. The losers? The ICC. And of course, the great game itself, after being dragged through the mud.