For those who have watched this prick in action for years

It is completely in character. He's made a decision on the state of the ball (And boy would I would LOVE to see the ball in question, which has conveniently "disappeared") IN CONJUNCTION WITH ANOTHER UMPIRE (which is conveniently forgotten, it seems) and then followed the laws of the game absolutely rigidly, applying them in his usual abrupt and totally charmless manner and with no attempt at diplomacy. Was the ball intentionally damaged? No idea, but it is astonishing how much balls vary in the way they wear.

Oh, and there wasn't an Australian team involved so we can't accuse him of cheating, either.

And something else I'll give him - he was absolutely and utterly bang on about Muralitharan. I watched that game live and there was absolutely no question that, as the laws of the game stood, he was a chucker. It wasn't every ball, but particularly his variations relied on him straightening his arm. I think Hair's been vindicated by just how many times they've had to relax the rules on chucking since, strangely enough usually co-inciding with questions about Muralitharan's action. The problem once again was Hair's approach, roughly equivalent to using a tactical nuclear warhead to open a bread bin.

Posted By: Iwan Husarmi on January 11th 2008 at 17:51:41

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