Well I must confess I'm surprised by Michael Holding's stance. Having been allegedly heard to say that all fast bowlers had tampered with balls at one time or other in their cricket careers which was surprising in itself as he must have spoken with all of them, dead and alive good old sporting Michael, a man who I have great respect for as a person and a legendary bowler, has trumped all the goings on so far during the Inziegate saga by backing Inzie and effectively comparing the stance of Hair as to someone (presumably you Mike!) parking on double yellow lines, entering a chemists to buy important medication (perhaps steroids Michael!) and then upon returning to his car to sweet talk a nice Parking Attendant out of receiving a Parking Ticket and a presumed trip to Marylebone Police Station to pay his fine. Now Michael you may be talking of your own driving experiences here but I know that most law abiding citizens would disagree with your belief that Parking Attendants/Wardens are lenient and compassionate in any circumstances. Perhaps there are those Wardens who would be friendly towards ex-cricketers or other superstars but to compare umpiring a Test Match with this is fantasy Mike. And anyway Mike no one has accused anyone of cheating (yet) and obviously you don't find it surprising that neither you nor none of your West Indies colleagues ever discovered Reverse Swing. Now this is the nub Michael. Don't you find it at all weird that you, Andy Roberts, the late great Malcolm Marshall (who could swing a ball in any direction at any time or speed I recollect), Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Joel Garner, Colin Croft.......dozens of others...none of these great fast bowlers ever reverse swung a ball....never EVER!
Mike, I agree on one thing! Poor old Inzie is perhaps the most innocent party in all this. By purely being appointed Pakistan Captain he has engulfed and been engulfed in the biggest scandal in cricket since bodyline and prior to that when WG himself refused to walk after being given out...on more than one occasion by all accounts.
No, your loyalty to fellow fast & fast/medium swing bowlers is commendable dear Michael but I think you've been drinking too much of the Sky Sport tea which must be contaminated with the same lack of analytical truth chemicals that the Sky News team possess.
To expect one (Hair) or both umpires to quietly take Inzie aside, mention Rule 42.3 or whatever number it is, with 26 Sky tv cameras and take the edge off the sitaution with microphones hidden in stumps is ludicrous. Picture this chaps....Hair and Doctrove or one on his own speaks to Inzie, warns him that a suspect ball tamperer is about, the conversation is picked up by Sky on a microphone, broadcasts occur before the tea break (bad light) where some or other or all asian cricketers commentating take umbrance at this and both or one of the umpires is brought to book after the day's play for failing to apply Rule 42.3 or whatever. Basically what I am saying is that the umpires having suspected a tampered ball were in a no-win situation and quite rightly upheld the Laws of the game.
Over to you Mike.....if you ever get around to reading this blog and find yourself living at ground zero like the rest of us!
But I do like your style Mike!
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