Hair today, gone tomorrow as cricket’s governing body bottles it

We knew it couldn’t last. The tiny bit of warm afterglow that everyone was enjoying following the ICC Twenty20 championship has evaporated in the cold, harsh light of Darrell Hair’s employment tribunal hearing. Hair’s charge of racial discrimination against his employers, the ICC, has been dropped, but not before the already tarnished reputation of the ICC Board was given another battering.

It is difficult to imagine any positives will come from yet another public airing of the cricket world’s dirty laundry. The back-story to Hair’s fall from grace is well documented. He was a central character in the abandoned England-Pakistan Test match at The Oval in 2006. He wasn’t the only character, but he has taken the brunt of the fallout from that disgraceful episode.

But Hair’s charge that his treatment was the result of racist influence of ICC board members was never going to fly. There is no doubt that race is a big issue with the ICC, but it is unlikely that it was the motivation behind the treatment of Hair. Corruption or ineptitude is a much more likely culprit.

The ICC board have been exposed as the Machiavellian b**tards that we have long suspected. The way Hair was set up after the debacle at The Oval was a masterful display of manipulation. While publicly declaring his support for Hair, chief executive Malcolm Speed was ensuring that he was nobbled with some deft behind-the-scenes touches.

The ball-tampering case was made to go away by charging Inzamam ul-Haq instead of the most likely culprit, Mohammad Asif. Charging Inzie made it easy for the hand-picked referee, Rohan Madugalle, to dismiss the charge. As an insurance policy, Hair was convinced to set out a deal under which he would make the whole problem go away. His offer was then exposed in a callous display designed solely to undermine his credibility.

Once Hair’s reputation was left in tatters, his future was decided by three men over lunch in what has been called a sub-committee meeting. No minutes were taken, indeed it would take some clever forensic investigation to actually determine that a meeting had taken place. But the real gold thread in the stitching up of Hair was the composition of this “sub-committee”.

This erstwhile group comprised Sir John Anderson from New Zealand, Nasim Ashraf, the Pakistan Board chairman – that’s right, the side that Hair made the accusation against and the same bloke who OK’d two of his star bowlers using steroids – and Peter Chingoka, the president of Zimbabwe Cricket and mouthpiece of Robert Mugabe’s corrupt regime. Any chance that Hair had a fair hearing? I don’t think so.

So Hair is on the way out. Ignoring the intimation from Ray Mali that Hair could one day return to Test match umpiring, there can be no doubt he will be quietly pushed away and at some point  will be given a ‘golden handshake’. This whole disgraceful episode will start gathering dust in the history books and one of the great injustices in the game of cricket will have been allowed to pass unchallenged. Hair will not umpire again at Test level and the game will be so much poorer for it.

Whatever people think of Hair or his approach to umpiring, the handling of the aftermath by the ICC was an unmitigated disaster. The fix was in because Hair was willing to say that the emperor had no clothes, he was willing to make calls that embarrassed national heroes, he acted according to what he thought was right, without first thinking through the potential consequences.

And that’s the whole point of an umpire. They shouldn’t have to be politicians or diplomats, they should make the calls as they see them. It is the job of the administrators to sort out the peripheral issues, perhaps making an effort to stamp out ball tampering or working to ensure dodgy bowling actions don’t make it to Test level.

If the ICC did their job properly, umpires would not need to start international incidents when they make a call, and could get on and do the job they are paid to do – umpire a game of cricket impartially, without fear or favour.  Not much chance of that happening now.

WICB warns players to seek direction before joining ICL

West Indies Cricket Board president, Julian Hunte, has warned regional players to seek legal advice before signing up for the controversial Indian Cricket League.

It has been rumoured that five West Indies cricketers have been offered contracts to play in the ICL, a league which the Indian Cricket Board has refused to sanction.

“I have heard rumours of players being made substantial offers. Nothing has come to me formally,” said Hunte speaking on KLAS Sports Radio evening programme, Scoreboard, here this week.

“I only hope that those players who have been made offers, get legal advice and our advice as to how they need to go about this.”

The ICL, funded by Indian media giants, the Essel Group, is set to bowl off later this year and will feature several big names in the sport, including West Indies batting great, Brian Lara.

He is expected to be joined by Pakistani batsman, Inzamam-ul-Haq, and former Australian batsman, Damien Martyn, as the big names among several international players down to participate.

While some national cricket boards have expressed their reluctance to sanction their players competing in the ICL, Hunte said the WICB were yet to develop a policy, but would do so shortly.

“It would be wrong for me to make any statement, except to say, most of the other Test match playing countries, have in fact, ‘banned’ their players, who have publicly accepted contracts for the ICL,”
Hunte said.

“We have not made any decision on it as yet. this is a matter which we will determine our own position on when we meet on the October 20 in Barbados.”

Colonel moots u-22 league

Despite his hectic schedule the chairman of national selectors Dilip Vengsarkar took some time off to check Mumbai’s bench strength for the coming season. In the city for a few hours while in transit between the two ODI venues Hyderabad and Baroda, the former Indian captain turned up to watch the finals of the under-22 Shalini Bhalekar cricket tournament. Over the years the tournament has thrown up a number of players that have graduated to the Ranji Trophy and Vengsarkar, who is also the chairman Mumbai Ranji selection committee, didn’t want to miss an opportunity to take a stock of the assembly line. “Yes, this tournament has been on for a long time. And this has provided a number of players to the Ranji squad,” Vengsarkar told The Indian Express.

Among the present Mumbai squad five players _ Sahil Kukreja, Prashant Naik, Abhishek Nayar, Omkar Gurav and Rajesh Verma _ made it to the senior after brilliant show in the u-22 tournament.

It has been a simple format that this tournament has been following for years. After an open trial, that generally attracts hundreds of players, four teams are selected and they play a knock-out tournament.

Vengsarkar is of the opinion that the format needs to be slightly tweaked. “Instead of knock-out the tournament we intend to change it to a league next year. This will ensure that the boys will get three matches to play. So in case someone misses out in one game there is always another chance in a league format,” he said spelling out his future plans.

Not just that Vengsarkar was also of the view that there should be an open summer nets for u-22 players. “At times there are players coming from suburbs and small towns and an open net will provide them to showcase their talents,” Vengsarkar said.

Vengsarkar also had word of praise for the Mangesh Bhalekar, the man who revived u-22 cricket. “He has been organising this tournament for years and constantly we have got boys for the senior team,” he said.

Ask Bhalekar the reason for starting this tournament and he has a ready explanation. “What I realised that after playing u-14, u-17 and u-19 cricket there was nothing for player who was not able to make to the senior team. Generally, players make it to the Ranji team when they are in their mid 20s. Such u-22 tournament will keep the players occupied and also provide them with an opportunity to show their talent,” he said.

Former Eden curator open to ICL offer

 It’s been less than a fortnight that the Indian cricket Board decided to do away Probir Mukherjee, one of the most experienced pitch experts in the country. And the veteran curator has thrown his options to the Indian Cricket League (ICL), in case an offer comes along. Mukherjee had been attached to the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) for well over 20 years, and he has been a key man for the BCCI in the past whenever it came to matters of ground and pitch preparation for international matches.

However, in a decision that is rumoured to have been influenced by reasons other than cricket, the BCCI recently decided to strike him off the elite team of five zonal heads for ground and pitch preparation.

Kolkata-based Mukherjee, who was earlier the Board’s east zone head and the sole curator-in-charge of the famous Eden Gardens for years, has been replaced by one Rabin Mukherjee.

Critics of the current Prasun Mukherjee-led administration reckon that curator Mukherjee was sidelined since he shared a close working relationship with Jagmohan Dalmiya during the latter’s heyday in cricket administration. The pitch specialist himself however says that he had been contemplating this treatment for a long time. In fact, he says that it was during the Indian team’s 5-day camp in Kolkata last summer that he had made up his mind to call it quits as far as the BCCI and CAB job was concerned.

“Towards the end of the camp (May 2007), team manager Ravi Shastri praised me animatedly in front of the CAB president (Prasun Mukherjee). Sourav (Ganguly) was there at the scene, and minutes later I disclosed to him that I won’t be continuing for long, much to his surprise,” Mukherjee told The Indian Express.

Interestingly, at a time when rebel league ICL is on the prowl for not just players but cricket logistics and administration experts, the veteran curator says that he won’t mind considering any offer from the Zee-backed initiative.

“I don’t know about the ICL’s plans and programmes. But if they come up with an offer, say, then I will think about it. I am out of the BCCI and CAB doesn’t mean I have given this up completely,” Mukhejee said.