Shaharyar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairperson, had indicated their concerns about the attitude of Australian official Darrell Hair prior to the controversial finish to last month’s final Test against England at The Oval.
Instead of the International Cricket Council (ICC) keeping Pakistan and Hair apart, he stood in four successive series involving them and accused them of ball-tampering on the fourth day at The Oval — an action which led to the tourists failing to return after tea and a Test being forfeited for the first time in cricket history.
Captain Inzamam ul-Haq was cleared of ball-tampering charges after the two-day disciplinary hearing at The Oval but given a four-match one-day international ban for bringing the game into disrepute.
But Pakistan believe the ICC could have taken action and prevented the incident had they listened more sympathetically to their concerns.
”We told them we had a problem with his attitude, so why post him to four successive series? It was a time bomb waiting to go off and it went off,” said Shaharyar.
”If a particular umpire has a history of problems with a particular country, then there should be a sensitivity behind the scenes to what that country is feeling.”
Pakistan are particularly angry about the ICC’s stance because Hair did not officiate in a Sri Lanka match for eight years after controversially calling prolific spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing in 1995.
”Our demand before the hearing was that he should not umpire our matches,” insisted Shaharyar.
”When Sri Lanka had a problem with Darrell Hair in 1995, he was not posted to a Sri Lanka match for eight years.
”All the time, the ICC held the position that no country has a right to say which umpire will be appointed to which match, but if you have a consistent problem with a particular umpire, then I think the ICC is right like they were with Sri Lanka not to appoint him for many years.
”When we conveyed this view verbally to them, we had Darrell Hair four times in succession and we feel very aggrieved by that.”
That view is underlined by Pakistan’s request for the ICC to investigate Hair, who has been withdrawn from duty for next month’s Champions Trophy tournament because of safety and security concerns, and whether his conduct during the Test brought the game into disrepute.
But Hair insisted he could take the criticism and claimed he would make the first move to try to repair his damaged relationship with Inzamam by offering to shake hands the next time they meet.
”If the opportunity arises, then yes that will happen,” claimed Hair. ”When it’s possible and we do meet, I will be the first one to shake hands — I want that to happen.
”I am contracted by the ICC to umpire cricket matches and if they think I have a good enough relationship to umpire any team, I will do so.
”I don’t have a problem umpiring any match anywhere in the world. I’ve umpired in Italy, I’ve umpired in Malta and I’ve been to lots of places to umpire a cricket match.”
Pakistan have 24 hours to lodge an appeal against the verdict and were waiting until they had properly studied the detailed judgement but were expected to accept the decision, which will rule Inzamam out of the Champions Trophy tournament. — Sport365.co.za