Adil Najam
The news is too fresh, murky on the details, and still developing, but as Adnan Ahmed has just pointed out on the comments section of another post, Pakistan walked out of — and therefore possibly forfeited — the 4th Cricket Test against England at the Oval, in a dramatic turn of events. Then, it was announced that Pakistan will take the field… but just as the crowd begins to cheer, the umpires decide they will not come out if the Pakistan team does. Meanwhile the light keeps deteriorating. No matter how this ends, this will be a drama to remember.
More and developing details are available here. Best place to stay informed on this is CrickInfo.Com, from where the photograph above is are linked. (Updated after original posting).
Adnan, I may be wrong and Naveed might know better, but I believe this great verse is from Mian Mohammad Bakhsh in Saiful Mulook. For those unfamiliar, the rough English translation is: “Do not express joy when an enemy dies, because your friends will eventually meet the same fate tooâ€
Adil: This is amazing. I go away for 1 week and you not only lose a planet, but also generated a controversy that cricket fans will be discussing for generations to come. The bizarre turn of events is hard to swallow, and even harder to comprehend. One question I have: What is the roel of the the other umpires in the match, because obviously Hair was not the only one around. What do the others have to say to this issue?
dushman marray tey khushi na karee-aye,
sajnaaN we marr jaana aye
waah!
Bulleh Shah?
I am not sure I follow your logic Tasmeena. The list you give COULD possibly suggest a bias against some South Asian teams but it does NOT suggest any desire for money. So lets not get into this superiority-rant thing please. By the same logic people could list a long list of times when Pakistani bowlers HAVE been suspected and in some cases (Imran) accepted that they ball-tempered. So, lets not get into the same dirty tricks that would offend us if used against us.
So, lets cut through the naaray baazi and look at the issue rationally. I, like most Pakistanis but generally like most cricket followers around the world, think that this was a terrible decision, terribly made, and the new demand by Hair is absolutely inappropriate. I do NOT think, however, that it is equivalent to an acceptance of guilt. It could, however, be interpreted also as a legitimate argument from someone not wishing to get dragged through what he would see as a needless controversy.
The number he is quoting ($500,000) is NOT unreasonable. As he says in his testament he has about 4-5 more years at least of elite umpiring. True. As a top ICC umpire his annual salary is $60,000. In addition he gets around $5000 per test, not to mention other games. Do the math. If he were to be forced into retirement, the amount WILL come out to be around what he asked for. His logic was that this was for foregone compensation. I have no idea what you mean by “money minded man” and “true motives”… The teams are also playing for money, so that is irrelevant. Unless you are suggesting that he did all of this to set it up so that he could eventually ask for this package; this is plain ridiculous.
So if we are going to be fair, lets be fair all ways. I believe Hair is WRONG on this one. Both in his decision and now in this suggestion. But I can also imagine that all of this has NOT been comfortable for him either. So, lets talk on the merit of the case … and, on that I believe in this case he is wrong and Inzimam is right.
I just find this style of guilt-by-association rather unbecoming. Particularly when we, who crib when it is used against us, do the same when others are down. As the poet said:
dushman marray tey khushi na karee-aye,
sajnaaN we marr jaana
P.S. By the way, I am not sure how or what you know about our digestive system (pt. 11), but I do hope that the ‘sweat’ dreams at the end was a type ;-)
Do not blindly defend a person becuase you feel you have to..!!!
Face the music..face the reality…Darrel HAIR is no more than a mere mortal…let him be what he is…
he has fallen for money and his urge to be in news has always been with him……and to achieve this glory he does different things on different times….
1) Ignoring countless LBW appeals raised by pakistani and other asians…
2) Murali getting called a chucker
3) Accusing Murali again in a book written just for fame
4) Calling Shoaib Akhtar aa chucker in 2000.
5) Calling Shabbir a chucker…
6) Stopping Kaneria from bowling in the whole inings without giving a proper warning…..against WI
7) Warning Salman Butt for running on pitch although he wasn’t…(ENG V PAK )
8) Asking for third umpire even though INZI was just taking evasive action to save himslef from getting hit by a mindless throw from HARMISON last year..
9) Countless edges and snicks from bat coming from rival batsmen on balls delivered by PAKISTANI Bowlers during the last 10 years..even if the snick is as loud as a drum beat….
10) now calling a 56 over old ball as tempered even though the ball was smashed hard,fell on concrete and hit hoarding boards…
11) there are at least a dozen more stories of his inept and biased umpiring but………. I think you as well as many others will find the truth difficult to digest…
Lastly congratulations…A MONEY MINDED MAN HAS GIVEN THE TRUE MOTIVE BEHIND THIS CONCOCTED STORYLINE….HAIR JUST WANTED MONEY AND FAME…..
BYE BYE…SWEAT DREAMS….