Skip to content

Ridiculous ball-tampering row at the 4th test

I don’t think anybody will disagree: the situation at the 4th test between England and Pakistan can only be labeled ridiculous. If you weren’t aware of the circus show, there’s no dearth of places to read about it.

At the end of the day, the fourth umpire communicated that there would no more play today. No word on whats happened to the match or if there will be any play tomorrow. Meanwhile 20,000 people are at the ground who were told nothing of what was happening and another 20,000 are probably due tomorrow. And millions of followers of cricket are completely confused about the game.

Forget about whether what happened and who was right or wrong. This is a sport, governed by rules and adjudicated by a match referee; yet what’s happening here is that officials are “locked in talks” to try and get the match to resume – and have been doing so for a couple of hours now. Since when were decisions in sport debated upon and decided during the course of the game? Just decide whats to happen already by the rules applicable and then deliberate later on who did the wrongdoing and pass appropriate judgments.

I certainly don’t know all the facts (no one does except the people involved) – but I think – fine, if Darrell Hair says the match is over, so be it. He’s the controlling authority for this match. Ask for evidence of ball-tampering later and if there is no satisfactory evidence, charge and punish him as appropriate later. But please, do not make this a standing joke on Test cricket. The game is slow enough as it is without having to take time off in between the game to solve individual ego clashes. Right now, the whole game of cricket is being made to look more immature than kids playing hide-and-seek.

One Comment