The Oval test nonsense, update
… and still no closer to any sort of resolution. If you didn’t witness it, then read this and get yourself up to speed. And as I sit here, some 4 hours after the events began to unfold, I’m still no closer to knowing what’s going on. There has simply been nothing forthcoming from any of the powers-that-be involved in figuring out what’s going on.
UPDATED BELOW
Jag over at Cricket 24×7 has assembled a very pertinent list of questions that need answering:
# Was the ball actually tampered with?
# If so, did the umpires see someone do it, or were they merely basing their judgement on how they saw the ball at a specific point in time?
# Does the act of the umpires, i.e. charging the Pakistan team with altering the condition of the ball, amount to an accusation of cheating?
# Do the umpires have to necessarily point out exactly who they saw fingering around with the ball? If the issue were taken to court, could lack of evidence on TV prove that Pakistan didn’t tamper with the ball?
# If the ICC’s code of conduct is applied, will the entire Pakistan team be charged under a Level 2 offence, assuming that there’s no evidence against one specific individual?
# Should Pakistan have actually just conceded the match, thereby ensuring that their protest was amply reflected?
# What did Pakistan hope to achieve by not coming out and then coming back on the field?
# Where did they get that ball, which they were playing around with on the field, from? I thought the ball would have been in the possession of the umpires.
# Even if the umpires had come back, would they have offered the light to the batsmen?
# Why doesn’t the ICC rules of mobile phones in dressing rooms apply? We saw so many folks chatting on their mobile phones.
# How would some of these players, Mike Atherton, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, have felt, given they’ve been at the receiving end of ball-tampering controversies earlier?
# What is match referee Mike Procter’s role? Why didn’t he get Inzamam, Strauss, Doctrove and Hair together to sort it out rather than wait for Pakistan’s dressing room meeting to finish?
# Does the umpires’ act of taking the bails off indicate the game is over? I think not. The bails being taken off indicate an end/abandonment of play for the moment (rain break/bad light/end of a session etc.). End of the game is when the stumps are uprooted (by the umpires and by the victorious team, if any!)
# Why hasn’t the ICC even bothered to make some sort of a statement on this issue, at least to let viewers/spectators know what’s going on?
# Why didn’t ESPN go to a single advertisement break?
# The last time a ball tampering controversy erupted big-time, an England-India test series was nearly cancelled. What about this match? What about the forthcoming one-dayers?
High-level meetings are still taking place, but ultimately the whole thing was a farce. I saw the whole thing unfold on Sky Sports and it was real soap opera stuff which just continued to get worse. The whole ball-tampering thing aside, the management of the incidents just heightened the nonsense. Whether or not Pakistan were right to protest is obviously up for debate (it seems to me that something should have been said during the Tea interval - perhaps the fact that nothing was said was why they decided to protest? That of course is the problem - everyone is so in the dark over what actually happened). But the umpires and batsmen going on, then off, then on, then off, then the players going on, then off… it was just ridiculous.
According to Sharyia Khan of the Pakistan Cricket Board - the Pakistani’s were simply trying to make a point - a protest - by being a few minutes late. But when they finally emerged on to the pitch, the Umpires apparently refused to return to the field. I say apparently, because obviously, no-one really knows. Cricinfo has gone positively mad with a flurry or articles, trying to shed some light - but as with all the other commentators, they’ve got very little solid information to say anything about it.
Incredible. At the very least, the debacle will take the heat off Kevin Pietersen, who I was otherwise going to be quite critical of, for yet again, showboating, rather than settling down and getting a really big score. Enough of him.
UPDATE
It has been officially announced that the game has been abandoned - there will be no further play. In theory, therefore, England win the series 3-0. What a way to win a whitewash.
Tags: ball-tampering, billy-doctrove, controversy, darell-hair, England, inzamam, pakistan, wtfRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Cricket
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