BRIT OVAL (fourth day of five): England beat Pakistan when the umpires
ruled that Pakistan had forfeited the match
NEITHER the professional pride of the umpires nor the righteous indignation of
the Pakistan captain and his team were worth the consequences of yesterday’s
abandonment of what had become an intriguing final Test match. It was held
up initially by bad weather, but sabotaged later by bad blood. The ICC’s
decision can lead only to prolonged recriminations at a time when cricket
should be helping sensitive international relations, not adding to their
intensity.
It is hard to exaggerate the cricketing significance of yesterday’s events,
not finally concluded until the ICC ruled that England had won the game by
default at 10.15pm. No Test had previously been lost because a side refused
to play since international cricket made its official start in 1877. Both
the five-run penalty for interference with the ball applied by Darrell Hair
and Billy Doctrove, and the initial refusal of Pakistan to resume playing,
are unprecedented, too.
Delays caused by intransigent umpires, notably when West Indies came close to
a strike in New Zealand in 1979 in protest at the home umpire, Fred Goodall,
and again when Shakoor Rana refused to stand until Mike Gatting apologised
in Faisalabad in 1986, are not so rare. They blighted the game at the time
and have never been forgotten. The same will inevitably be true of this
game.
If the decision had been left to the two cricket boards, the umpires, rightly
or wrongly, would have been overruled. Their verdict was that Pakistan
should lose the match, despite their eventual willingness to continue after
making what the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Shahriyar Khan, described
as a protest at a “grave accusation”. It had to be an ICC decision because,
since the early 1990s, the game’ s governing body has appointed the referees
and umpires. Mike Procter, as referee at the Brit Oval, and Malcolm Speed,
the ICC chief executive in Dubai, had a devilishly difficult decision to
make between supporting the umpires — and, through them, the laws of the
game — and considering the wider good of the game.
Even that was not simple because by overruling umpires who believed that they
were acting in good faith, it would have been setting a precedent that their
decisions are not as final as they are supposed to be. The alternative was
to create ill will on all sides, not least from the 24,000 who were at the
Oval yesterday and the 12,000 who had booked in advance for the fifth and
last day’s play today.
Recent relations between the England and Pakistan boards have been excellent,
and between the two teams as good as they have ever been, despite two very
competitive series in the past nine months. The one-day series starting at
the end of August will give the opportunity for immediate repairs to
yesterday’s wounds, but the repercussions will not end there.
The ICC arguably bears the prime responsibility for the chaos that ensued
after the five-run penalty had been applied when England were 230 for three,
not because the adjudication was right or wrong, but because of the umpire
who took first responsibility for the decision. Hair has been a
controversial figure for a long time in Asian cricket circles. It was
insensitive and unwise to appoint him for the last two matches of this
series, not least because he had twice incensed Pakistan during the
Faisalabad Test in November.
Hair was only applying the law correctly as he saw it yesterday, however, when
he and Doctrove agreed that there had been unfair damage to the condition of
the ball, then when they ruled that Pakistan had forfeited the match by
failing to return at the scheduled restarting of the game after an early
tea.
Whatever might or might not have been the justice of the umpires’ decision to
change the ball yesterday, Pakistan’s was a gross overreaction. There would
have been great sympathy for them had they waited for the referee’s hearing
that would certainly have taken place at the end of the day’s play in
accordance with normal procedure. After all, the television cameras had
spotted no illegal interference of any kind.
Shahriyar indicated that there were “strong grounds” for Pakistan’s objections
to the umpires’ decision, partly because neither Inzamam nor the bowler,
Umar Gul, had been given any indication that they had suspected any foul
play. Gul had produced a fine but very late inswinging yorker to dismiss
Alastair Cook.
Andrew Strauss had been more conventionally leg-before during a fine spell of
leg-break bowling by Danish Kaneria in the morning. Kevin Pietersen’s
subsequent 96 was wonderful entertainment and the game was nicely poised
when the madness ensued. He and Cook had taken England to 183 for two at
lunch, 148 behind and still in trouble. They would have been in a deeper
mire had Cook been given out in the first over, caught off pad and glove at
silly point off Kaneria for his overnight score of 33.
In a wholly fair game, Cook would have obeyed the old-fashioned convention of
walking. A batsman who does not walk when he has touched the ball in the air
to a fielder is as guilty of breaking the game’s spirit as a bowler who uses
his fingernail to rough up a cricket ball. There remains no proof, of
course, that the ball yesterday was damaged by anything other than normal
cricket treatment. That was exactly what Pakistan indignantly claimed,
through the far-reaching protest of their captain, was all that had
happened. It would have been better had the ICC ordered the game to be
continued today, if necessary with different umpires, before any further
inquiry into the condition of the ball.
Full scoreboard from the Oval
ENGLAND: First Innings 173 (Mohammad Asif 4 for 56; Umar Gul
4 for 46)
PAKISTAN: First Innings
Mohammad Hafeez c Strauss b Hoggard 95
(227min, 178 balls, 1 six, 14 fours)
Imran Farhat c Trescothick b Hoggard 91
(152min, 112 balls, 1 six, 13 fours)
Younis Khan c Read b Mahmood 9
(33min, 13 balls)
Mohammad Yousuf c Read b Hoggard 128
(349min, 236 balls, 18 fours)
*Inzamam-ul-Haq c Strauss b Harmison 31
(77min, 62 balls, 5 fours)
Faisal Iqbal not out 58
(141min, 90 balls, 8 fours)
†Kamran Akmal c Collingwood
b Harmison 15
(18min, 13 balls, 3 fours)
Shahid Nazir c Hoggard b Mahmood 17
(54min, 31 balls, 1 six, 2 fours)
Umar Gul lbw b Panesar 13
(25min, 26 balls, 1 six, 1 four)
Danish Kaneria c Trescothick b Harmison 15
(32min, 24 balls, 1 four)
Mohammad Asif c Cook b Harmison 0
(2min, 2 balls)
Extras (4 b, 9 lb, 11 w, 8 nb) 32
Total (129.5 overs, 559min)504
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-70 (14.4; Farhat 44); 2-148 (31.3; Yousuf 24);
3-325 (80.1; Yousuf 111); 4-379 (97.5; Yousuf 126); 5-381 (99.0; Iqbal 0);
6-398 (103.1; Iqbal 2); 7-444 (115.5; Iqbal 30); 8-475 (122.4; Iqbal 44);
9-504 (129.3; Iqbal 58).
BOWLING: Hoggard 34-2-124-3 (nb 6; 15 fours, 4-0-13-0,
5-0-16-0/stumps/8-2-37-1, 4-0-11-0, 1-0-2-1/stumps/3-0-7-0/rain/3-0-6-0/
rain/lunch/1-0-4-0/rain/4-0-23-1, 1-0-5-0); Harmison 30.5-6-125-4 (nb
1, w 3; 19 fours; 6-1-38-0, 3-1-7-0, 4.3-0-22-0/rain/tea/0.3-0-2-0,
1-0-9-0/stumps/2-0-5-0/rain/3.5-0-14-0/rain/lunch/1.1-1-1-0/rain/8-3-21-2,
0.5-0-6-2); Mahmood 27-3-101-2 (nb 1; 15 fours; 6-1-24-1,
4-1-20-0, 5-0-15-0, 3-0-15-0, 2-1-1-0, 1.5-0-9-1/tea/5.1-0-17-0); Panesar
30-6-103-1 (4 sixes, 9 fours; 1-0-3-0, 7-1-26-0/ lunch/8-2-23-0,
3-0-8-0, 4-1-15-0/tea/7-2-28-1); Collingwood 6-0-29-0 (6
fours; 2-0-6-0/rain/tea/2-0-6-0, 2-0-17-0); Pietersen 2-0-9-0
(1 four; one spell).
ENGLAND: Second Innings
M E Trescothick c Akmal b Asif 4
(12min, 10 balls, 1 four)
*A J Strauss lbw b Kaneria 54
(122min, 83 balls, 9 fours)
A N Cook lbw b Gul 83
(206min, 146 balls, 11 fours)
K P Pietersen c Akmal b Nazir 96
(158min, 114 balls, 2 sixes, 13 fours)
P D Collingwood not out 26
(92min, 66 balls, 3 fours)
I R Bell not out 9
(30min, 23 balls, 1 four)
Extras (8 b, 3 lb, 10 nb) 21
Total (4 wkts, 72 overs, 312min) 298
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-8 (2.4; Strauss 4); 2-115 (28.1; Cook 43); 3-218
(51.5; Pietersen 62); 4-277 (64.2; Collingwood 16).
BOWLING: Mohammad Asif 17-1-79-1 (nb 6; 13 fours;
6-1-28-1, 3-0-12-0, 5-0-30-0, 3-0-9-0); Umar Gul 14-1-70-1
(nb 1; 10 fours; 5-0-25-0, 3-1-12-0, 6-0-33-1); Mohammad Hafeez
4-1-13-0 (1 six; 1-1-0-0; 1-0-3-0, 2-0-10-0); Danish
Kaneria 29-6-94-1 (nb 2; 1 six, 12 fours;
3-0-11-0/stumps/13-3-34-1/lunch/10-2-40-0, 3-1-9-0); Shahid Nazir
8-1-26-1 (nb 1; 3 fours; 4-0-18-0, 4-1-8-1).
SCORING NOTES: Fourth day: Start delayed 15min by rain. Lunch
183-2 (44 overs, 188min; Cook 67, Pietersen 44). Umpires conferred 2.31 to
2.37pm (England 230-3; 56 overs; Pietersen 69, Collingwood 5). Ball changed
for one chosen by batsmen and five penalty runs awarded to England for
ball-tampering. Bad light stopped play at 3.46pm — tea taken at 298-4 (72
overs, 312min; Collingwood 26, Bell 9). Play due to resume at 4.40pm.
Umpires and England batsmen took field but left when Pakistan fielders
failed to appear. This procedure was repeated at 4.55pm, umpires removed
bails and, under Law 21.3 (a), awarded match to England. Pakistan took field
at 5.25pm but left when umpires refused to continue match. Play abandoned at
6.10pm.
Umpires: B R Doctrove (West Indies, 9th Test) and D B Hair
(Australia, 76th). Replay umpire: P J Hartley.
Fourth umpire: T E Jesty. Match referee: M J Procter
(South Africa, 41st Test).
SERIES DETAILS: First (Lord’s) Drawn. Second
(Old Trafford) England won by an innings and 120 runs. Third
(Headingley) England won by 167 runs.
Compiled by Bill Frindall
