WHITEWASH & WORLD EXCLUSIVE

Over the last week or so this blog deliberately stopped blogging regarding the ball tampering and disrepute charges against Inzie as it was felt that by providing more ammunition to the gutter press sports correspondents would do nothing for the good and future of the game. Yesterday the ICC determined that the charge of ball tampering be quashed whilst the disrepute charge, Inzie was held accountable and banned from four 1-day matches. Well as was predicted by this blog the whole saga has been dealt with neatly and efficiently by ICC but in truth there are many unanswered questions. This blog takes the view that Inzie was indeed innocent of the tampering charge BUT...and this is the big BUT....someone(s) in the Pakistan team must have been accountable for the change of the ball somewhere between 50th and 56th overs. Quite rightly the charge of bringing the game into disrepute was proved but instead of a 5 TEST MATCH ban (i.e one av. series) Inzie received a lesser penalty of wait for it, a ban for 1-day matches. Quite why Madugalle thought that this was a punishment for a TEST MATCH is beyond reason. It's rather like penalising a Formula 1 racing driver for speeding on a public road by banning him from a Grand Prix at the end of the season after the outcome of the championship had been decided. Anyway Inzie is regarded as a Test player rather than a 1-day specialist so the result can only be described as a WHITEWASH. Perhaps WHITES-WASH would be a better term for a cricketing whitewash.

What has become of the noble game? Well, I can only compare what is happening in cricket to what has happened in society generally and in particular the similarities between the administration of cricket is similar to what has happened to the London Stock Exchange. When I joined the LSE in 1979 we had an exchange controlled and managed by experienced brokers understanding of the complexities and workings of the exchange. Any misdeamenours were dealt with by a council made up of practioners and a visit to the committee was considered tantamount to one's job, career and life being on the line. The phrase "23rd floor" was frowned upon and no-one wanted to visit there although I know plenty of old brokers who survived. After Big Bang in 1987 the government forced on the exchange a regulatory system consisting of lawyers, administrators and many non-practioners. The whole idea was that by having these monkeys telling us how to behave and regulating us then the rules of the exchange would be upheld, insiders would get prosecuted, well you get the drift. The result has been a disaster but like all the biggest and best disasters very few realise that they're actually part of it. The boffins at the EEC feel and act likewise no doubt. Meanwhile cricket has been going down the same road. Let me explain!

For years, indeed generations, cricket was run and managed by cricketers past and practising. Just like the old London Stock Exchange then. Something happened mid-term during Thatcher's tenure. Cecil Parkinson was directed to examine whether the exchange was a closed shop. The conservatives determined it was and self-regulation should be replaced by external regulation. The same thing has happened in cricket. Old cricket afficionados like Lord Cowdrey have been replaced by non-cricketers. Retired cricketers no longer get into cricket administration but join the press corps. It's a generalisation I know but just look at the ICC. It's has been hijacked by lawyers and regulator types. When Lord MacLaurin (Tesco's) entered the etchelins of the cricket establishment something happened for the worse. It wasn't deliberate you understand. The ethos of the game changed and big business arrived. Sponsorship improved, boxes and corporate entertainment thrived which is all quite satisfying but the structure of the game changed for the worse.

Every schoolboy knows two things about cricket when excitedly he starts his first day at his school or club and is put into practice nets with more experiened players. The first thing is that he thinks he knows how to hold his treasured bat but his grip is wrong. The other is that no matter what the umpires word is law...always law. If the umpire says the ball is BLACK it is black. It might be actually red, pink, white, green but if the umpire says it's black then it is BLACK. If a bowler hits a batsman plumb in front of the stumps and appeals thinking the batsman is out nothing happens without the decision of the umpire. I lost count of the times when I thought I was out LBW but given not out by the umpire. We all remember those occasions when we were given out unfairly but think of the run outs and LBW's we all got away with. This is what makes cricket a great game. The imperfections of the rules and the daft decisions of umpires. So why is it that administrators are ruining this game from Dubai?

The blog was set up to defend Darrell Hair but more importantly to defend the basic ethos of the game and all the millions of umpiring decisions that get made regularly all around the world. This is a world game. It always has been. How long will it be before absurd suggestions come from the ICC that they wish to make it a global game? Like the London Stock Exchange it always has been global. We (lovers of the game) don't need to be told it is global just like we don't need to be told that something murky is happening to our game. Bob Woolmer & PCB want the rules of ball tampering to be relaxed. Why? That is the question. The reason is obvious.

I notice that Boycott, Simon Hughes and John Hampshire were witnesses for Inzie during the hearing. Fantastic! All three are extremely knowledgeable and would have given very good accounts of why they thought Inzie was innocent. And he was! But one thing has puzzled me about this whole affair. This is it.....If 2 umpires felt it necessary to change the ball because they thought it had been tampered with and now they have made public that they didn't actually see someone tamper with it then surely logic dictates that someone on the field of play saw another player tamper with the ball. But none of the other 21 players active in the game appear to have made any statements.

Yesterday, shortly before the outcome of the hearing I had a telephone call from a friend. This friend (and I need to be very careful here) rang me for a general chat and I asked him if he has taken any interest in Inziegate or had any thoughts prior to the ICC hearing outcome. He told me had been too busy. You see he works in the world of cricket. It's a very small world so this is all I will say. I asked him whether he had thought any members of the Pakistan team had cheated by tampering with the ball in the Oval test. His response was surprising. Very surprising indeed! He said that he knew of young cricketers who had been shown in the last week or so how to change the ball without anyone seeing what was going on. I know it's a bit wishywashy but the source is very reliable and apparently an English cricketer (one of the 11 in the Oval match) had shown them how the Pakistan bowlers were changing the dynamics of the ball. The chiselled shape of the thumb in conjunction with a very hard nail is the key. Now I was told about this also around 1 month ago by my friend, the ex-Kent colt so it's no longer fantasy then.

Darrell Hair will no doubt be put out to grass not because he was wrong or a bad umpire but because he enforced the laws of the game fairly. Pakistan, on the other hand, are being appeased by pushing the boundaries to these laws to th extreme.

THE GAME IS NOW RUN BY LAWYERS...SAVE THE GAME BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

In 7 days time this blog will change it's name to INZIEGATE, not because I believe that Inzie has done anything wrong but because he represents a country that is pushing the game into a corner. Ball tampering has always been around and like insider dealing it will always occur. But the lesson is that despite the thousdands of regulators working down at Canary Wharf very few accounts of insider dealing have been prosecuted. That's what happens when lawyers arrive. Things get murky and nothing get's done. Cricket is a game. Let's keep it as a game and let it be run by retired cricketers from London, Melbourne, Jo'burg, Kingston, Delhi NOT Dubai please.

JUDGEMENT DAY

The following is the summary of the ICC's judgment on CricInfo....

Inzamam-ul-Haq has been cleared of charges of ball tampering after an ICC Code of Conduct hearing at The Oval, but has been found guilty of the charge of bringing the game into disrepute and banned for four ODIs. He said that he would not appeal against the ban.

"I have considered their evidence honestly and fairly given very carefully," Ranjan Madugalle, the senior ICC referee, explained. "My duty is to call and give my own judgment. On the second charge - bringing the game into disrepute by refusing to play - I find Mr Haq guilty in that on two occasions he led a protest against the umpires by failing to come on to the field of play at the relevant time. I take the view, subject of course to any further submissions Mr Gay [Inzamam's lawyer] may wish to make, this is a Level 3 charge - a ban of two or four Test matches and/or between four and eight one-day international matches.

"As to the appropriate penalty for the offence of bringing the game into disrepute, I am satisfied that this is a Level 3 matter. On two occasions he led a protest against the umpires. I have taken into account Mr. Haq's expression of regret and apology. I decide that Mr Haq should be banned for four one-day matches with immediate effect. What happened was unfortunate. It has taken time but the matter has been resolved now."

Inzamam himself told Pakistan TV: "The whole nation has supported our decision. This was a matter of respect for our team and country. We fought for what we thought was right. Team's reputation in the past hasn't been great and so this was important. It was important to register our protest becuase if we didn't then it wouldn't have gotten this far even and now it has been proved we are not guilty of ball tampering. This is a victory for Pakistan.

"I had an idea that I would face some sort of ban. This is the most lenient ban and I will not appeal against it."

"We are very satisfied," Shahriyar Khan, the PCB chairman, said as he left the ground. "We feel the whole process is very fair."

Abbas Zaidi, the PCB's director operations, told Cricinfo: "We have just been told that Inzamam and the Pakistan team have been acquitted of the ball tampering charges. This is excellent news for us as it vindicates our stance all along that we weren't guilty of ball tampering."

Monkey Business as the countdown commences

ISLAMABAD, Sept 20, 2006 (AFP) - Former cricket legend Wasim Akram Wednesday said Australian umpire Darrell Hair should also be penalised if Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq is banned for his role in the Oval Test fiasco.

Inzamam is due to face an International Cricket Council (ICC) code of conduct hearing in London on September 27 and 28 and faces a possible ban on charges of ball tampering and bringing the game into disrepute.

"Hair has not only been a controversial umpire now but he has been controversial in the past as well, and I think he should also be penalised if Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq is banned," Wasim told AFP.

Hair and Inzamam were embroiled in a major controversy during last month's fourth Test at The Oval after the umpires awarded England five penalty runs against Pakistan on suspicions of interfering with the ball.

Pakistan subsequently protested and refused to continue the match which was eventually awarded to England after a stalemate -- the first ever forfeit in Test cricket's 129-year history. "It was an unnecessary stand-off at Oval and although Pakistan's protest was wrongly prolonged, Inzamam had led his team to the field and it was the umpires, especially Hair, who did not want to start the match," said Wasim.

"Why is only Inzamam appearing before the court and why is he only charged for bringing the game into disrepute? "Hair should also face a hearing."

Wasim said Hair was rude and had previously called Pakistani players "monkeys".

"He (Hair) is a rude sort of person and in 1995 he called Pakistani players monkeys for continuously jumping in appeal and as a captain I took a strong notice of that and protested over it," said Wasim.

Since the Oval controversy the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has demanded that Hair should not stand in their team's future matches. But reports from Australia Wednesday suggested Hair will return for next month's ICC Champions Trophy in India.

Wasim, who took 414 Test and a world record of 502 one-day wickets, urged the ICC to use more former players as umpires. "Since Hair has not played cricket he doesn't understand players properly and if the ICC uses former players as umpires the game will benefit more and more," said Wasim.

Inziegate update after a breather

It has been a week since I last posted. Whenever an emotive issue arises in any sport many commentators discuss the merits of the disaster or whatever and then there is a lull....then a storm. Well, it appears that cricket or to be exact, Inziegate has been in a lull phase for the past week. After all, cricket has been played so let me be the first (last actually) to congratulate Pakistan on their excellent form in the 1 day series versus England. England's team is way below standard without Flintoff and a very wobbly opening pair. Shabby bowling doesn't help! But even during this Younis Khan and Inzie masterclass the ball-tampering fingers have been wagging. I am, of course, referring to Shoaib Akhtar (good to see you back Shoaib) seen rubbing his thumb across the white ball during his walk back or was it the start of his run up. Who could tell? Well, I can categorically say that the spin doctors and nutters running sports media really are losing their marbles. There is no way jose that any bowler could or can be accused of tampering by allowing his thumb to rub the ball whilst in his hand. Now if his chisel of a thumb had been lifting the seam then that is another story but BALL-TAMPERING no. Pakistan are innocent on this absurd suggestion or was it an accusation by the media. Shock of horrors I received a telephone call just after this Shoaib ball rub had been shown on Sky and my friend, an ex-Kent colt no less, and someone who was shown how to swing a ball from Richard Ellison, a great seam, swing and length bowler in his day, said to me that he had spotted a Pakistan infringement far more shattering than anything else other than the Hair Doctrove incident at the Oval. What could this have been? Well my friend, I shall call him Ozzie, told me that he had access to the Sky technology whereby he could slow down a bowlers action, focus in on the arm, and investigate and examine whether any bowler's arm could be considered CHUCKING! What! I'll repeat that...CHUCKING young man! A whole new can of worms could be opened here. According to Ozzie the aforementioned bowler's inswinger was a clear chuck. But then of course the umpires (was it Doctrove I saw on the ECB TV link?)don't have access to this sort of technology thank goodness! Of course, with the current poor standard of cricket reporting it's unlikely any of the ex-pro's would or could pick this up but it does show that Pakistan have allowed their coaching methods (pre-Bob of course) to get just a little stretched, if it's true, and I know my friend Ozzie is a man of his word and very knowledgeable. So knowledgable and skilled in fact that he told me he practised swinging balls by swinging stones round the corners of brick walls. He's in his early 40's now, and I've never seen him bowl, except chuck an orange across a dealing room floor in the City at around 70mph, so a great talent appears to have gone begging Kent. Oh well!

What else has happened in the Inziegate situ? Oh yes, the date I gave you earlier, 15th September, well that has been changed. With all the supporters of cricket screaming for an early hearing and a clear up to the mess what did the ICC do? They did what all daft codgers do. They put it back further rather like schoolboys passing smelly underwear around a dormitory during a pillow fight. So the hearing is now on 27th & 28th September 2006. TWO DAYS....now this must be important. Picture this! There are 2 sides at the hearing. The PCB with players, ex-players, squads of lawyers, and on the other side a certain Mr D Hair and his lot. Well apparently it takes 2 days to hear what everybody knows....Inzie brought the game into.....and a certain bowler tampered the ball. Robert Redford, I hear, is being considered for the role of D Hair! Someone send him a Wisden!