— mere funde

Darrell Hair seems to beat the current bad boy cricket (Sohaib Akhtar) when it comes to being the centre of a cricketing controversy. The apparently no nonsense umpire has been removed from the elite panel of umpires and will no longer be officiating in International matches.

While the media from Down Under and Britain are crying foul and terming it as strong arm tactics of the Asian bloc, Mr. Hair is not stranger to courting controversy. Lets take a look at his career which has never remained free from the limelight.

1992. Adelaide Test. India vs Australia. In this match eight Indians fell victim to LBW decisions but only two of their appeals were upheld. Australia won by a narrow margin of 38 runs. Wisden felt that the entire affair was “marred … by controversy over lbw decisions – eight times Indians were given out, while all but two of their own appeals were rejected”.

1994. Adelaide Test. South Africa vs Australia. Peter Kirsten had an animated talk with Mr. Hair after a series of Proteans were declared out LBW. Kirsten was promptly declared out LBW in the next innings, and South Africa lost the game. Many felt that the decision was flimsy at the best.

1995. Melbourne Test. Sri Lanka vs Australia. Mr. Hair infamously no-balled Murali (from the bowlers end) for chucking. Now though the Aussies agree that Mr. Hair is very fair in all his dealings, I am ready to bet that such instances are not very common in the cricketing arena where the leg umpire is generally the one to declare a ball as being “thrown”. Lot of water has flown under the bridge since then. ICC has cleared Murali of all charges. Mr. Hair was charged (note, not penalised) for bringing the game into disrepute by calling Murali’s action “diabolical” in his autobiography.

2005. Faisalabad Test. Pakistan vs England. Mr. Hair declares Inzamam run out for leaving his crease while taking evasive action. Cricketing gurus feel it is contradictory to cricketing laws that stipulate that batsman cannot be run out if he leaves his ground due to evasive action. [Side note: I was happy as the decision against Tendulkar at Eden Garden is avenged.]

2006. Oval Test. Pakistan vs England. Mr. Hair, in consultation with Mr. Doctrove, declare the ball as being tampered with penalise Pakistan 5 runs and change the ball. Now, we all now that Pakistan has long faced such charges and are often in trouble for tampering with the ball and getting “some” reverse swing. Anyways, Pakistan decide that they had done nothing wrong and decide to not take the field as a mark of protest. Mr. Hair declares the match as forfieted and awards it to England. An enquiry committee then finds the ball being not tampered with and clear Pakistan of ball tampering charges but penalise them for bringing the game into disrepute. This was done after hearing the views of former cricketer Geoff Boycott and TV analyst Simon Hughes.

On the receiving end of Mr. Hair’s decisions have been India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa while on the other end stand Australia and England. Now, only if someone could explain me why the so called Asian bloc (supported by South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe) was for, while Australia and England (supported by New Zealand) are against, the suspension of Mr. Hair?

I love Geoff Boycott for three things. HIs love for Dada , his accent and his kick ass comments. Ruddy balls and a nothing shot. Here is a piece from Siddharth Vaidyanthan (Cricinfo), in almost similar tone, taking pot shots at the injury Yuvraj has picked up before the all important India-Australia match. Check it out here.

Cricinfo – ‘There will be no excuses’ – Ponting

Best part:

Typing in kho-kho gives you 3,040,000 search results on Google. “Ancient Indian sport”, “running and chasing”, “chariot race in the Mahabharata”. Crucially, “it does demand physical fitness, strength, speed, stamina, and a certain amount of ability”. Yuvraj can’t be faulted for the first four attributes, after injuring himself this morning, but maybe he was a bit short on ability.

Ponting admitted Australia were “desperate” to win the Champions Trophy. Can India go on to stop them? Sri Lanka and Pakistan couldn’t stop their respective opponents and if India end up losing tomorrow, it will be the first time in 31 years – since the 1975 World Cup – that a subcontinent team has failed to make the semi-finals of a major tournament. Maybe they need to start mastering kho-kho.

But I do wish that Sachin kicks some serious Aussie ass.

Mr. Dave Richardson (see post below), ICC's General Manager, has now been diagnosed  to have been suffering from the foot in mouth disease. Renowned experts came to the conclusion after analysing Mr. Richardson's latest effort to justify Mr. Brian Lara's on field behaviour (here).

"Lara is a renowned player, a famed cricketer. He got frustrated (after) the umpire forced the players to make a decision. He did get a little frustrated, snatching the ball from the umpire, but he certainly did not show dissent," he told NDTV.

Also, a symptom was his pathetic attempt to justify the fine imposed on Virender Sehwag.

"The Sehwag incident was unfortunate. ICC wants to cut down on excessive appealing. We want to prevent players, tell them not to put too much pressure on umpires. In Sehwag's incident, it was a case of not appealing. He slipped up (on that account)."

So here you have it. Snatching the ball from the umpire, not dissent. Celebrating for a wicket you claimed = bad behaviour.

Update: Pedro Collins was "reprimanded" for being guilty of guilty of "the practice of celebrating a dismissal before the decision has been given," by Jeff Crowe. Did some one say double standards??

Sachins 132nd. Dravids 100th. Dravid captain till 2007. Join the Dravid Fan Club. A few highlights of the Mumbai test. Oh, forgot one. India loses Mumbai test by 212 runs!!!

This is not a Dravid bashing post but highlights his failures. Going in a test with 5 bowlers an you opt for batting second?? Inexplicable (But thats a team decision right!! I think someone should answer, Chappel may be). Droppping catches like crazy (teams problem). India dropped no less than 15 catches in the slip cordon alone Now what has Dravid got to do with it. Oh, did I mention he dropped 5 of those (but he also took the great ones)? And Dravid is a good slip fielder. Again Yuvraj left many in the silly point position (not Dravids fault), but persisting with him there (I guess who is to blame). Not having Sachin in slips for consultation, and Sachin is a good slip fielder (someone is to blame).

Dravid is a great batsman, perhaps the best India has produced in a long time. But he is no match for Ganguly as a captain. And please I am a Dravid fan. Not a Chappel one though.

 Meanwhile something to cheer