Well done that man

Darrell Hair.

For making the final test of the series against Pakistan at the Oval one to remember.

Yeah 20 odd thousand may not have seen any play after quarter to four but they witnessed something else, something that had never happened before a forfeited test and even if they hadn’t a clue what was going off out there they have an “I was there moment” – OK it may not match winning the Ashes last year.

Oh poor old Pakistan that nasty Australian (Hair) has got it in for them every time they try and cheat he catches them out applies the letter of the law, punishes them and lets everyone one know about it. Oh poor old Sri Lanka don’t like it when he calls their chucker for chucking – if he wasn’t chucking why were the laws changed to basically allow chucking ?

I haven’t heard so much crap in ages, all centred on how it was Hair’s fault and he should back down – funny this is coming from those that keep telling us the umpire’s word is final and his position and authority is sacrosanct – but no here Hair is getting all the blame.

Countries can’t dictate which umpire stands and their players can’t dictate decisions the umpires make, ah but Hair does things his way and he could have been a bit more sensitive. What he has to treat different countries in different ways in case they throw a hissy fit, certain nations have to seen as special cases – well maybe so especially those with previous.

We’re told he should have had a quiet word, along the lines of “Well you know you’re cheating and we know you’re cheating so could you just tone it down a bit” one guesses, the dummy spitters would have taken that well one imagines.

The ball was damaged with Pietersen smacking it into the stands, no in the 15 minutes between Cook’s wicket when the umpires inspected the ball and when they next took a look and decided there was something dodgy it had mainly been Collingwood – well I want to use the phrase “scratching about a bit” :grin:.

Ah ah we’ve looked at the tapes and there’s nothing to see – could his be due to players knowing what they’re doing now and are not going to stand there in full view of everybody & camera lens as when Pakistan toured England in ’92 and Aqib Javed gouged his nail into the ball as Ritchie Benaud let out a shocked “steady on” in his TV commentary.

Then we are told the Pakistan team wanted to make a little protest by staying in their dressing room before play resumed, OK well they did this as Hair and Bill Doctrove came out went out into the middle at 4:40, while Bell and Collingwood waited on England’s dressing room balcony.

There we go protest done, they were then told if they weren’t out in time now then that would be it game forfeited so out come the umps and England batsmen to the middle at 4:55, Pakistan are given a couple of minutes to join them (after the fair warning) but no show.

So Hair and Doctrove have only one course of action, do what they said they would and call the game ended, Pakistan forfeit and England win. Then about half an hour later Inzamam leads his players down the strep, knowing full well what they were warned and thinking the game is run at their discretion.

No it’s not, and again everyone says it’s Hair’s fault for not caving in and coming out to play.

Full break down of how it all went off.

So now Inzamam has been charged with bringing the game into disrepute, for the no show as well as being charged with changing the condition of the ball – as no one else is owning up then it falls on the captain’s head, the buck stops there. There was a certain bowler who was taken off straight after the umpires declared the ball had been tampered with.

Funny to hear as well that you could get huge odds on England winning before all of this which were dramatically slashed as it all kicked off.

So there we go off to the Ashes on the back of another test win and a 3-0 series victory 😆