Holding supports Pakistanis

Holding felt it was wrong for the umpires to penalise the Pakistanis without first giving them a warning.

“Most other umpires would have said something to the captain, given the offending team a warning of some kind, and then if the tampering continued, they would have been totally justified in taking action,” Holding wrote in India Today, a leading weekly news magazine on the sub-continent.

“I have absolute and all sympathy with Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul Haq. If you label someone a cheat, please arrive with the evidence.”

Holding added that “first world hypocrisy” was to blame for the present crisis.

“There is a double standard at work in cricket and this episode has only highlighted it,” he wrote.

“When England used reverse swing to beat the Australians in the 2005 Ashes, everyone said it was great skill.

“When Pakistan does it, the opposite happens and no one thinks it is great skill. Everyone associates it with skullduggery.

“When bombs go off in Karachi and Colombo everyone wants to go home. When bombs go off in London, no one says anything.”

Holding was not surprised by the support that Hair was receiving in his native Australia. “Today, Hair is being defended in Australia, but that is just a matter of friends sticking together, the Aussies defending an Australian umpire,” he said.

“Everyone now citing the cricketing law as the absolute and final truth is talking absolute rubbish. Every law has room for flexibility.

“I read a prime example recently in the British press. It said that by law, you can be fined for parking within the yellow lines in England.

“If you do that to run into a chemist to buy emergency medicines, a sensible policeman would more than likely tell you about the law, but it’s unlikely a ticket would be forthcoming.” Inzamam has been charged under the International Code of Conduct with bringing the game into disrepute after he and his side refused to take the field in the fourth and final Test against England recently at the Oval.

They were protesting the decision of umpires Hair and Billy Doctrove of Dominica to report them for ball tampering which resulted in a five-run penalty.

The umpires later awarded the match to England, the first instance in the 129-year history of Test cricket that a game was forfeited.

The Pakistan Cricket Board on Tuesday wrote the International Cricket Council, the sport’s world governing body, calling for an inquiry into Hair’s conduct during the Test.

They have also demanded that the inquiry be held prior to Inzamam’s disciplinary hearing at the end of next month.

The PCB also wants clarification on whether to name Inzamam in the squad for the Champions Trophy as the ICC wants the final 14-member squads confirmed by September 7.

Hair himself has apologised for sending an ill-advised e-mail following the incident to the ICC, in which he proposes a US $500,000 payout for him to resign from international umpiring.

Hair now lives in Lincoln in England, and initially claimed that the ICC considered his offer and had asked him to put it in writing, but chief executive Malcolm Speed has rejected this.

(CMC)