Pakistan vs England

[A.Rahman]

Fourth test descends into chaos

By Tony Lawrence

LONDON (Reuters) - The fourth test between England and Pakistan descended into farce on Sunday as first Pakistan, then the umpires, failed to return to the field after tea on the fourth day following a ball-tampering storm.

Pakistan's players, on course for a face-saving win in the four-match series, had been stunned during the afternoon at The Oval when Darrell Hair and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove imposed a five-run penalty for ball tampering and changed the ball.

Play continued until tea, with England on 298 for four in their second innings and still 33 runs shy of making Pakistan bat again, when the fiasco exploded.

Hair, who has been involved in several controversies with teams from the sub continent in the past, and Doctrove walked out to the middle alone, then returned to the pavilion for further discussions as Pakistan's players remained in the dressing rooms.

The umpires walked out again 15 minutes later, this time followed by England batsmen Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell, but Pakistan again failed to show. Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal was clearly visible reading a newspaper without his pads on.

The bails were then removed and the covers brought on as the crowd began to boo and jeer.

Top officials from the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Pakistan Cricket Board then met to discuss the situation.

Things took a new turn around 45 minutes after the scheduled restart when Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq led Pakistan out, then straight back in as the umpires this time stayed away.

Umpires have the right to award a match to the opposition if they deem a side had refused to continue playing.

Earlier England, with an unassailable 2-0 series lead but battling to avoid an innings defeat in the final game, were earlier given an extra five runs after the umpires ruled that the ball had been tampered with by Pakistan during the afternoon session. Batsman Alastair Cook had been bowled by a reverse-swinging yorker from pace bowler Umar Gul shortly before.

Inzamam became embroiled in a heated exchange with the umpires before the England batsmen at the crease, Kevin Pietersen and Collingwood, were allowed to choose a replacement ball. Play had then continued without further incident until tea.

Hair first hit the headlines when he called Sri Lanka Muttiah Muralitharan in Australia in 1995-6. Pakistan are believed to have been unhappy with his umpiring earlier in the series against England.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

 

[A.Rahman]

FOURTH TEST, THE OVAL, DAY FOUR:
England 173 and 298-4 v Pakistan 504


Day four of the fourth Test between England and Pakistan was sensationally abandoned after a ball-tampering row.
England were awarded five penalty runs and allowed to choose a replacement ball after 56 overs in the afternoon.
Pakistan initially refused to come back out after tea, but returned after talks between both countries' cricket boards. The umpires then stayed behind with England still 33 runs behind on 298-4 and doubts remain over whether the game will continue at The Oval on Monday.

 

[A.Rahman]

1816: The covers are now on. And the match could still be on too - until Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove come out of their room and spill the beans, we don't know whether they've abandoned the game or not.

1811: Announcement over the public address system: there will be no more play today.

"Nothing has been resolved in the meeting - the umpires and match referee are still in there."
Simon Mann, Test Match Special

1807: Those same fans are amusing themselves by constructing the longest pint-pot snake of the summer so far. It's a monster - at least three anacondas in length.

1804: The International Cricket Council say that they will not be making any statements for the time being. What's the hurry, boys? There's only 12,000 fans sitting there wanting to know what's going on.

1801: Rumours circulate that there will definitely be no more play tonight. Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal can been seen taking off his inner gloves; the other players are on the balcony looking depressed.

1756: It's now been an hour and a quarter since play was meant to resume after tea.

1752: Still no official announcement. Yellow-jacketing stewards are ringing the outfield. The covers are still off, if anyone out there fancies a game.

1749: Complete confusion in the crowd. The spectators haven't been told a thing, as the following text message will illustrate:
"What's going on? Have we won?" Jamie, England fan at The Oval

1745: It's now getting pretty dark at The Oval too. If anyone does come out - which looks increasingly unlikely - play could get suspended for bad light without a ball being bowled. It's now farce o'clock, no?

1742: "We feel that there is no evidence whatsoever of deliberate scuffing of the ball. Once you accuse a team of deliberately tampering with the ball, it becomes a very big deal" Shaharyar Khan, PCB chairman

1741: More from Khan - "We felt we should make a protest, but we simply said that we would stay inside for a few minutes, and go out when the protest had been registered."

1739: Quote from PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan: "We are still hopeful that the match can start again."

1736: Surrey chief executive Paul Sheldon confirms that the umpires are refusing to come out. Match referee Mike Procter is apparently in the umpires' room, deep in talks with Hair and Doctrove.

1733: "Darrell Hair is refusing to budge. That's the impasse." Jonathan Agnew, Test Match Special

1730: Apparently a deal had been brokered between the two teams, but no-one thought to involve the umpires. The umpires apparently took the Pakistan no-show to mean that the match had been conceded.
"There are four stewards standing outside the umpire's dressing-room, and they're all big men." Simon Mann, Test Match Special

1728: Who'll be next to refuse to carry on? Maybe I'll sack this live report off too - throw my keyboard down and return to the BBC dressing-room. Only joking - the drama is incredible. I wouldn't do that to you.

1727: They're going back in! With no sign of the umpires, the Pakistan team are returning to the pavillion. Rumours are flying around that Darrell Hair is now refusing to come out.
"What a mess! What a mess!" Jonathan Agnew, Test Match Special

1726: Kevin Pietersen is taking photos of it all with his digital camera while the boos continue. At least someone's enjoying themselves.

1724: Here come the Pakistan team! They're trudging down the pavillion steps to a deafening chorus of boos from the Oval crowd. But where are the umpires?

1722: "A deal's been done - play is going to resume." Simon Mann, Test Match Special

1719: The covers are coming off. It looks like play could actually continue at some point. Still no official announcement about what's going on.

1718: Movement on the Pakistan balcony - there's a blazered official waving towards the pitch, as if to indicate that they might be coming back out. Has Morgan brokered some sort of deal here?

1716: Morgan is now sitting outside the Pakistan dressing-room, looking completely crestfallen. Pakistan team manager Zaheer Abbas is with him.

1712: There is now a huge crowd of photographers gathered on the outfield in front of the pavillion, long lenses trained on the Pakistan dressing-room. When umpires Hair and Doctrove started looking at the ball just after 1430 BST, who would have guessed this would be the result?

1711: Morgan goes into the Pakistan dressing-room.

1707: I don't think Pakistan are going to return. Akmal goes back into the dressing-room, Shoaib Akhtar leaves it. The door shuts again. David Morgan, chairman of the English Cricket Board, is in deep discussion with Shaharyar Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board. You've never seen two more serious-looking men.

1704: The crowd are utterly baffled. There's been no official announcement whatsoever, and there's a growing sense of disbelief at the ground.

1702: There is chaos at The Oval. Nobody knows what has happened. Rumours are flying around. Has the match been awarded to England because Pakistan are refusing to come out? The England players are in their training kit, standing around on their balcony looking serious.

1659: The door of the Pakistan dressing-room remains shut. What's going on? You fear that this incident is going to overshadow the entire series unless something happens soon.

1657: The England players are walking off again, as are the umpires. The umpires have taken the bails with them. Could this be the end of the match?

 

[A.Rahman]

1654: The umpires have walked to the wicket and so have the England batsmen. But still no Pakistan team. In fact, Kamran Akmal is sitting on the balcony reading a newspaper. This one could run and run.

1651: The Pakistan dressing-room door remains resolutely shut. There are urgent discussions going on in the match referee's office, but no sign of the players.

1645: Huge excitement at the ground as the impasse develops. The minutes are ticking by, and Pakistan aren't budging. The crowd have started to slow-handclap.

1643: Hold on - something's going on here. The umpires are out, the England batsmen are ready, and there's no sign of the Pakistan team. Are they going to come out?

1632: News from the middle: play will re-start at 1640 BST. The covers are off and the sky above a fraction lighter.

1620: Gloominess prevails at the wicket, and there's no re-start yet. There's dampness in the air, and it's dark dampness. The umpires are out there but the covers are on.

1545: BAD LIGHT STOPS PLAY. TEA BEING TAKEN

Time for a breather - it's a touch gloomier, and that's all these umpires need. We're off, and it's time for a sandwich.

1538: Two maidens in a row, and the pace has dropped still further. England will probably be alright with that - they're just 37 runs shy of making Pakistan bat again. Kaneria changes ends, maybe hoping for some drift in to the right-handers via the stiffening breeeze.

1532: Nazir continues and Bell drives square for another single to move on to nine. Tea approaches, and large chunks of the crowd have wandered off to the bars for an early thirst-quencher.

1524: Right - it might not be what the crowd wanted, but it's now the Bell and Collingwood show. And that means pushed singles and flicked twos, rather than the demolition derby they were enjoying earlier. Colly's on 21, Bell on three, and it's all gone quiet again.


1519: The crowd has been stunned into silence by Pietersen's dismissal. It was a great catch by Akmal, although it didn't quite make up for the easy chance he dropped when Pietersen had made only 15.

1515: WICKET Pietersen caught Akmal bowled Nazir 96
Calamity for England, joy unconfined for Pakistan. Pietersen sees a wide one from Nazir, slashes at it and watches aghast as Akmal takes a fine one-handed diving catch behind the stumps. He's missed out on his century, and England's chances of saving this Test have just been dealt a hammer blow.

1513: Shahid Nazir comes on as Inzi attempts to tame the KP tiger. The crowd fall silent - the field is up tight, and the chance is there...

1509: England are on the attack. KP thrashes Kaneria high over midwicket for six and then does the same a few balls later off Hafeez. He's raced to 96, and the crowd are loving it. England are now just 54 runs behind. Pietersen takes a few deep breaths, readying himself for another onslaught.

1502: Asif has replaced Gul. Read into that what you will. Collingwood, possibly wearing Cook's lucky box, jabs down late on an inswinger and watches in horror as the ball bounces down behind him and misses the stumps by a bail's thickness.

1452: Pietersen plays a lovely late cut off Kaneria to move to 80, and the drinks come on. Behind the scenes, the tampering row is only just beginning...

1445: Up in the match referee's office, Mike Procter is frantically leafing through what looks like a rule-book. Woolmer has now marched off, and is back on the Pakistan dressing-room balcony, scratching another ball while talking animatedly with bowling coach Waqar Younis.

1439: It's all booting off. Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer has marched straight into the match referee's office, and he didn't look happy. Good luck Mike Procter...
Out on the pitch, Pietersen cracks the new 'old' ball off the back foot for four to move on to 73.

1434: Inzi's not happy about this - the umpires have picked up the ball and are examining it closely. They call Trevor Jesty on with the box of spare balls, and we could have a diplomatic incident here. They're changing the ball, and that can mean only one thing - the umpires think the Pakistan team have tampered with the ball.
Lordy - Inzamam's furious. To him this is tantamount to being called a cheat. A five-run penalty has been given against Pakistan, and this one's going to run and run.

1430: Gul's getting a bit of reverse swing here. Collingwood pushes him for two into the off-side.

1426: Collingwood plunges forward to Kaneria and gets a big inside edge onto his pad - but the ball flies wide of Faisal Iqbal at short square leg. Iqbal turns up the volume on the chat.

 

[A.Rahman]

1420: Pietersen flays Kaneria through cover for four as the leggie finally tires of his leg-stump line. There's a heavy burden on his shoulders now - and you can bet that he fancies it.

1414: WICKET Cook lbw bowled Gul 83
Cook's luck runs out at last as Gul's inswinging yorker traps him plumb in front. He looks absolutely gutted. That's a big blow for England - that partnership was looking tasty. In comes Collingwood.

1412: Cook chops Gul down to the deep point boundary to bring up the 100 partnership in just 93 minutes.

1409: Kaneria continues to bowl into the rough outside Pietersen's leg stump, and Pietersen continues to kick them away. 12 balls in a row now that he's failed to score from. Will the frustration tip him over the edge?

1404: Cook now turns on his own impression of Pietersen, taking 10 off Gul's over. Cook being Cook, four of the runs come from an edge through fourth slip and two from a mis-timed pull to square leg. He then drives beautifully through extra cover to move to 79. Should he get to his century, do you think the Pakistani players will applaud him?

1355: Pietersen plays a remarkably watchful over to Kaneria, padding up three times and not attempting a single attacking shot. It's a flawless impression of his batting partner.

1350: Pietersen goes to his half-century with an easy two. He then flays Gul over midwicket for another four. He's now only 10 shy of Cook's total of 67, despite having been at the crease for half as many deliveries.

1346: Kaneria opens the bowling after the break, and Pietersen manages to flick him away for four. A nice start for England on this grey and anxious afternoon.

1340: The Pakistan team get busy with a three-minute huddle as they await the arrival of Smasher Pietersen and Scratchy Cook.

LUNCH

1300: Hafeez comes on for an over of off-spin before lunch, and almost strikes straight away - Pietersen edges one onto his pad and just past short square leg. He's got 44 runs off just 48 balls, while Cook is on 67 from 127 deliveries. England will probably be happy with that morning, lucky though they were. Will their jamminess survive the lunch break?

1253: Can England hang on til lunch? Cook continues to plunge his pad at everything Kaneria bowls, while KP eyes the long-off boundary and licks his lips.

1248: Pietersen leans back and cracks Kaneria square for four - his best shot of the day. Danish then drops short again and Pietersen repeats the trick. Big cheers from the Oval crowd. Pietersen laps it up - you can almost see his chest inflating with happy pride.

1241: KP charges down the wicket at Kaneria and hoists him over mid-off. The ball just about reaches the boundary - not a great shot, but classic Pietersen. England might be 164 runs behind, but don't expect him to play a watchful four-hour 50.

1234: Pietersen must have sipped from Cook's cup - he edges Kaneria straight into Akmal's gloves, only for the hapless stumper to spill it. Kaneria looks absolutely staggered.

1229: Nazir comes on for Asif, and induces an inside edge from Pietersen that flashes past the stumps before racing down to long leg for four. Kaneria attempts to cut the ball off with block tackle but instead boots it over the ropes with the finesse of Jack Charlton.

1225: Time for a drinks break. Cook takes a swig of his patented Lucky Juice, probably washing down a fortune cookie as he does so.

1217: Asif drops two balls short to BLM, who pulls both unconvincingly for four. Cook then drives uppishly past Inzamam's left hand and gets two more. Somehow he's reached 62 not out.

1207: Cook is now officially Britain's Luckiest Man. He mis-times a pull straight to Motormouth Iqbal at square leg, only for Faisal to drop a chance so simple you would have backed your mum to pouch it. While talking to your sister on the phone. Bowler Asif can't quite believe it. He can't believe it even more when Cook flips him off his pads for four, and goes to the scratchiest half-century of the summer so far.

1202: In comes Kevin Pietersen, on a king pair after his golden duck in the first innings. Kaneria snaps one into his front pad, and Faisal Iqbal starts chirping. There's a Kaneria at one end and a canary at the other. Will Pietersen rise to it?

1155: WICKET - Strauss lbw bowled Kaneria 54
The England skipper goes, and it was only a matter of time. Kaneria turns one a mile out of the rough outside Strauss's off-stump, the ball hits him on the back foot and Doctrove raises the finger. It was actually a marginal decision - the ball looked to have turned too much, but the Law of Doctrove comes into play - if it looks out, it probably isn't, and if it doesn't look out, it probably is.

1150: Strauss must be regretting that single. He endures his own leg-spin horror-show, playing and missing at two and then being beaten all ends up by Kaneria's googly.

1147: Strauss, loving the fact that he's at the other end to the Danish Danger, goes to his 50 with a dashing cut off Asif for four. A clip for two off his legs brings up the century partnership, and he then pushes a single into the leg side to get his junior partner away from the hellish torture.

1143: Survive he does, by a flea's whisker. One ball spins viciously out of the rough and thuds into his box, another fizzes into the blockhole and another just misses off-stump. Palms remain sweaty.

1137:Strauss cuts Gul for four, and then pushes him for two more. Bad news for Cook - he'll be facing Danish again. The odds of him lasting an entire over can't be much better than 50-50.

1130: There we go - Kaneria clean bowls Cook, and it's a no ball. Unbelievable, as Alan Hansen might say. Cook is playing the leggie with the ease of a blind man staggering through a cacti maze.

 

[A.Rahman]

1123: The only way Cook could look less happy against Kaneria would be if the demon spinner walked down the pitch after every delivery and slapped him in the face with a wet kipper. He just can't pick him, and responds by thrusting his pad out blindly at every delivery.

1115: Pakistan open up with Danish Kaneria, a slip and a man in front of the bat on either side. The fourth ball flies off Cook's front pad and bat straight to silly point, there's a huge appeal... and umpire Billy Doctrove says not out. Gulp.

1105: The covers are off, and the heavy roller is out. (NB: this is not another reference to the incident at 1052 BST)

1052: Movement on the England balcony - Duncan Fletcher is eating a sandwich. He is taking elephant-sized bites and chewing with his mouth open. It's a far from pleasant sight.

1045: Unusual optimism from umpire Darrell Hair - he's says we're going to start at 1115 BST. Still looks a bit grey out there, to be honest. After getting a right soaking on the way in this morning, I was convinced we'd have a feet-up morning of reading the Sunday papers - but Darrell knows different.

1032: The pitch is covered and umbrellas are up, so there seems little prospect of a prompt start at the moment. But we'll keep you posted.

 

[Spring Onion]

The match not gonna play anymore today and may be there will be some problem even 2mrw or may be played without that empire

 

[Lahori paa jee]

All my support is with Inzimam and i feel we all should be supporting him in this tough time.

Nothing has come up in the tampering matter so far and there is nothing he will be able to proof. All i know is that he has alot of bias against Asians be that Pakistani's Indians or Srilankans. Being an Australian he is trying to dominate and the Australian Team is dominating ICC.

But i really feel ashamed yet again. This time by the manner in which Inzi and his boys were forced to come back to the field. Does Shehyar and other management have nothing called self respect. If they made a decision they should have put their foot down and said we are never coming back

But we saw a Mushy's chamcha in the pavillion.............Nasim Ashraf. What was he doing there. Not only was he telling our players to return he was giving thumbs up while standing at the balcony. Its a pitty.

Had Imran been in Inzi's place he would have personally thrown Nasim out of the Pak enclosure

 

[Neo]

What a waste of time, we could easily have won this one to restore some pride in a lost series. :wall:

 

[Lahori paa jee]

The unfortunate news is that England has been declared the winner

 

[ab041937]

I think Pakistan was justified in not coming out after tea. I feel they shouldn't have come out even later. These 75+ years old unpires are beginning to have things their way. Surprisingly, nothing was caught on camera.

 

[KashifAsrar]

The forfeiture of The Oval Test
What a horrible mess
Andrew Miller

August 21, 2006



The controversy unfolds, as Darrell Hair tells Inzamam-ul-Haq what he thinks was done to the ball. Curiously, none of the 26 cameras backed the claim © Getty Images



Of all the myriad moments that turned yesterday into one of the most depressing days in cricket's long and often fractious history, none matched the moment that the Pakistan team re-emerged from their dressing-room, and took the long walk down through the crowd in a bid to restart the game. The noise that accompanied them had to be heard to be believed - a chorus of deafening boos that was chilling to anyone who has the game's best interests at heart.

It was chilling because it was so unnecessary. Of all the Pakistan series to have taken place in England since the start of the 1980s, this had been by a country mile the most harmonious. No controversies, no crowd trouble, no umpiring bust-ups, no clashes of monstrous egos. With the wonderfully laconic Inzamam-ul-Haq at the helm, and his English coach Bob Woolmer on hand to bridge any cultural gaps, Pakistan and England have been finding themselves more closely bonded than perhaps they ever imagined possible.

What an improbable and wonderful time for these two teams to be pulling off such a diplomatic coup. It cannot have escaped anyone's notice, least of all in the past couple of weeks, that these are no ordinary times in which we are living. The global stand-off between East and West has rarely been more pronounced, and yet here - in the heart of London, a city forever wary of paralysis by extremists - a team from the misunderstood world of Islam has been performing wonderfully well in front of sell-out crowds and appreciative TV audiences.

So to hear the boos at The Oval yesterday was a frightful jolt back to reality. It was a reminder of the ignorance that has tainted so much of the dialogue between East and West, because the crowds were being fed limited information, and their preconceived notions were doing the rest. They had been frustrated by a half-hour delay, in which time they had been privy to no stadium announcements whatsoever, and when they saw the Pakistanis appear on the pavilion balcony, the logical conclusion was to pin the blame for the hold-up squarely between their eyes.

How grossly unfair, but how typical. As the day's events unfolded and the gravity of the stand-off became apparent, that initial hostility was tempered and replaced by something that might even have resembled sympathy. But for me, that booing still rings in my ears. It was the unnecessary tip of a whole iceberg of unnecessity. The Pakistanis had been accused of cheating, and not one of the 26 cameras that Sky has permanently trained on the action has yet produced any evidence to back up this lofty claim. How curious.

And how passé. The entire issue of ball tampering is a relic of the early-1990s, when Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were so brilliant that the only feasible explanation was that they had mastered the dark arts. Since then ball-tampering has somehow retained a stigma that transcends the crime, which is ridiculous when you think of everything else that is accepted as part and parcel of the modern game.

Sledging? Bring it on, I say, so long as it is not prejudicial. Walking? Get with the times. Time-wasting? A slap on the wrists and 20% of your match fee please. All of these are deemed to be lesser moral crimes than ball-tampering, but only one of them requires even an iota of cricket-related skill for it to be effective. How on earth does that work?

There are many things that cricket professes to be that it is not. The notion of it being the gentleman's game has been a lie ever since WG Grace first replaced his bails upon being bowled. And in more recent times, the matchfixing scandal was an emphatic stake through the heart of anyone who's ever uttered "It's not cricket!" with any sincerity.

But I'll tell you what cricket really is. It's a bridge between cultures that might otherwise have drifted apart with scarcely a backwards glance. OK, so it's rooted in its colonial heritage, which is right at the crux of the issue that is eating the game this morning, but how grateful is the world right now for even the slightest insight into the psyche of the other? England's recent tour to Pakistan was a public relations triumph, with scores of Pakistanis cheering on the tourists in the Test series, and a gleeful packed house watching the one-off one-day game in the troubled city of Karachi.

So many misconceptions were exploded on that trip. In fact, there is a case for suggesting that the quietly devout Inzamam is the best ambassador that Islam could ever hope for. Gentle, polite, obliging - he's quite unlike the British media's stereotype. And yet this morning at least one of Inzamam's team stands accused of being a cheat.



What a horrible mess. Darrell Hair must have known what he was getting into this afternoon. He must have. This is a man who has allowed controversy to stalk his every waking hour, from the no-ballings of Muttiah Muralitharan and Shoaib Akhtar to the run-out decision he gave against Inzamam at Faisalabad this winter.

And this evening, in the face of ever more furious attacks on his integrity, he refused to back down, and instead ensured that a match that was destined, almost certainly, for Pakistan has ended in farce.

Ignorance has got us into this unholy mess, and it's going to take one hell of a lot of explaining to get us out again. Already the Cricinfo servers are creaking under the weight of furious feedbackers, and none of the messages have been remotely complementary.

Here is one such depressing missive. "There is no doubt of the racism and hatred that the British have towards the Muslims and especially Pakistan ." It's just not true - look at the evidence of this series for starters. Actually, after today, it's best not to.

 

[KashifAsrar]

Troubled times ahead
Martin Williamson
August 21, 2006

While the debate rages about the rights and wrongs of actions on the fourth day at The Oval, the attention will soon turn to the future and what will happen to the various parties in the days ahead. Here is Cricinfo's take on what to expect
ICC
The ICC is caught between a rock and a hard place. Going by their own regulations, they have little choice but to back their own on-field umpires who, whatever might be said about common sense, acted within the law. Given that its match referees have a track record of stamping down heavily on minor offences such as dissent and slow over-rates, refusal to resume a Test match is a serious offence inviting heavy punishment. However, Pakistan have been portrayed as the victims and unless credible evidence can be furnished about ball tampering, any action against them could lead to further schisms in world cricket as any such fines are likely to be fiercely opposed by the PCB and it in turn might well be backed by other Asian block members.

Pakistan Cricket Board
The PCB is sure to go on the attack over the ball-tampering accusations that triggered the post-tea no show. They have made no secret of their distrust towards Darrell Hair in the past, and they are likely to use this incident to claim high moral ground. They are likely to push for Hair's removal from the elite panel, and settle for nothing less than a guarantee that he would take no part in matches involving Pakistan. Where the Pakistani management are in thin ice is in the claims made by Shahryar Khan, the board chairman, that the team's protest was only a brief one and that they were willing to resume. Given that the officials twice made their way to the middle - and some reports claim that the umpires asked them what they were doing in between - they will find it hard to maintain that the team's non appearance was a short-term statement.

Darrell Hair
Hair, it can be argued, acted with in the law. If he believed that ball had been tampered, he was well within his rights to take action. But common sense is as important as the letter, and although his might cast more light on what happened, it does seem that Hair failed in that regard. The ICC had to back his actions yesterday - had it not then it would have been open season for any side to walk off when they objected to an official's decision - but it is increasingly hard to see him being appointed to games involving Pakistan - or any Asian country. To drop him from the Elite panel would be a tacit acknowledgment that he had got it wrong, but possibly a face-saving retirement might not be too far away.

England & Wales Cricket Board
They have come out of this as the innocent party, and its decision to refund Sunday's spectators 40% of their ticket price (and Monday's in full) was something it was not obliged to do. The one area where the ECB was rightly slammed was for the complete lack of any announcements to the crowd from tea-time onwards, leaving most of the 20,000 crowd relying on radios or word of mouth for information. That was unacceptable and must be addressed.

Match Referee
This role has been subject to much criticism ever since its creation more than a decade ago, and there has been widespread murmurings of discontent about what many believe was Mike Procter's lack of decisive action yesterday. Inzamam has been quoted on a TV channel as saying that the match referee played a part in persuading the Pakistan team to return to field, and if that is the case, then Procter clearly did not see the match as having been forfeited when the umpires took off the bail. It may turn out he was working like a beaver to resolve the situation, but he has a lot of explaining to do. May be this will lead to a review of the role of the match referee, and that might be only good out to come out of this sorry episode.

 

[Spring Onion]

Thats what they wanted.They knew that England was losing.

And the Darrel was trying to foresee something he dosnt know may be he was trying to prophec that Pakistani side will temper the ball
How stupid on his part.
Anyway it was good decision on the part of Pakistani team. to react collectively.

 

[KashifAsrar]

I also think Pakistan took a very good decision. this man harper must be exposed to world now. He has played havoc with the careers of asian players.
Kashif