For those of you who are new to this blog please refer to my previous posts where I have been extremely critical of the actions of Speed since Friday's outrage. It is clear as I summised earlier that ICC set Mr Hair a trap over a potential agreed early termination of Hair's ICC contract. Mr Speed apparently has lied to us, the cricket lovers, to the media and the whole of the world. As I have said from the beginning of this blog it is the ICC who are bringing this great game of ours into disrepute by NOT respecting the Laws of cricket and supporting their umpires in all aspects of what happens from the opening delivery to when the bails are lifted. Venkat, the retired Indian umpire and now the Pakistan Test umpire Mr Dar have spoken in support of Hair. The tide is at last turning in Hair's favour. Quite why the ICC have failed to act is virtually criminal. I believe that the ICC has been got at by PCB and those with vested interests in Pakistan obtaining valid ways to cement their stranglehold on the art of reverse swing bowling. The recent spat between Woolmer and Jarman leaves all cricketers in no doubt that Woolmer's appointment as coach to Pakistan might have been more to do with his appreciation of reverse swing bowling than his recognised all-round superb coaching skills. The dressing room saga as I suspected resulted from differences of opinion between Zaheer (I am sure he engineered the sit in!), Inzie and Woolmer and the recent revelations on an Indian website suggest that Woolmer has considered resigning as a result of major differences of opinion during the sit in and since. Well I'm not surprised especially now that Jarman has entered the ring and our Bob's memory banks are not so good for a certain game that took place in 1997. Yet another ball to lock up Barry J! Here is an extract of today's CricInfo comment.....it makes interesting reading and confirms my reasoning for giving Mr Hair 100% support. Read on chaps....
Darrell Hair, the Australian umpire at the centre of the ongoing ball-tampering controversy, has claimed that his offer to resign if offered US$500,000 was made at the behest of the ICC. In a statement issued through his lawyers last night, Hair stated that he was invited to put his offer in writing by Doug Cowie, the ICC's umpires manager.
Hair said that his offer "was not a spur of the moment thing" and that he had a dialogue with the ICC. This immediately shifted the focus to Cowie, who first responded to the infamous Hair email last Tuesday by suggesting that his resignation offer "may have merit".
But Hair has now claimed that Speed made only a partial disclosure of exchanges three days later. Hair's lawyer also said that his latest statement was designed to "address certain misconceptions that appear to have arisen as a consequence of the release of certain confidential correspondence between Mr Hair and ICC".
"I was encouraged to make the offer that was disclosed by ICC on August 25. During an extended conversation on August 21 with Mr Cowie I was invited to make a written offer. The figure in the e-mail correspondence was in line with those canvassed with the ICC. I would have thought that it was quite apparent from the text of correspondence that I had been in discussions with ICC about the issue. The opening words of my e-mail to Mr Cowie confirm this: 'Just (to) firm up what we discussed earlier this evening ... '"
The ICC quickly rebutted the claim. A spokesman said: "There were many informal discussions between Mr Hair and Mr Cowie between the end of the Oval Test and Mr Hair's first e-mail on Tuesday, including a discussion on the potential impact on his career. Mr Cowie's role was to support and counsel Mr Hair, as his manager, at a difficult time. It is our understanding that at no stage during their conversations was there discussion of a pay-off, nor secrecy, nor deadlines, nor misleading the public over reasons for retirement -- all of which was subsequently laid out in Mr Hair's email."
Speed said he wanted Hair to continue as an international umpire but wasn't sure whether it would be possible after all this. He went on to back Cowie as well. "If he could play it again, Doug would play it differently," Speed said. "When the email came to me, I saw that not for one second could we contemplate it."
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