Tooting Gull
Well-known member
- Jul 5, 2003
- 11,033
The things is, Darrell Hair has a lot of previous with Pakistan. And Sri Lanka with Murali as well. Many of them feel he is racist, rather than incompetent.
Clearly that's never going to be proved or probably even discussed, but given the sensitivities maybe he blundered in a bit. Surely if you're going to accuse a team of cheating, you have to have seen the incident, or have a very good idea of when it happened. Otherwise it's chaos.
I suspect he will be pressured to back down by the ICC to let the game go ahead. He won't. Then they may try and say he was in the wrong, so if he won't play ball they'll replace him. That will trigger a load of shit about backing for umpires, and I doubt any of his collegaues would agree to replace him.
Separately, Pakistan should be heavily fined for their actions, regardless of how right/wrong Hair was.
Clearly that's never going to be proved or probably even discussed, but given the sensitivities maybe he blundered in a bit. Surely if you're going to accuse a team of cheating, you have to have seen the incident, or have a very good idea of when it happened. Otherwise it's chaos.
I suspect he will be pressured to back down by the ICC to let the game go ahead. He won't. Then they may try and say he was in the wrong, so if he won't play ball they'll replace him. That will trigger a load of shit about backing for umpires, and I doubt any of his collegaues would agree to replace him.
Separately, Pakistan should be heavily fined for their actions, regardless of how right/wrong Hair was.