Splitting Hairs.

Sydney: Umpire Darrell Hair has been hailed a hero in Australia for his role in the ball tampering row which led to Pakistan forfeiting the fourth Test against England.
Yeah Right. Bloody Convicts!

Robert Craddock, writing for the Daily Telegraph, said "Darrell Hair is prepared to poke his nose into grubby corners of the cricket world where most of his fellow umpires refuse to go"
Where is Mr. Robert bloody Craddock when there's a non Asian team sledging its poorer Asian opponents? Or when Michael Slater has a go at Rahul Dravid and umpire Venkatraghavan and gets away scot free. Where Brian Lara acts like a petulant child with a Pakistani umpire? What's good for the goose, obviously isn't good for the gander, what? Ol' Ricky P coming out to bat with an aluminium bat isn't exactly a 'grubby' corner now, is it?

"If there were a few more Hairs available to stand in matches around the world then cricket would be in less of a mess than it is right now," Patrick Smith wrote in The Australian.
Mr. Patrick Smith - How about if there were a few less Aussies playing cricket around the world, then cricket wouldn't be the sort of ugly-big-bully playground it is right now? Eh?

Hair should be considered a hero for his courage, despite being subjected to death threats in the past.
He should be glad the Ayatollah doesn't watch cricket.

Shaharyar Khan, the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), said the board would not accept Australian umpire Darrell Hair for any matches."We are going to make it clear to the International Cricket Council (ICC) that we are not going to play under the supervision of Hair in any future matches."
Go Paki Go Paki Go!! No Hair. No Hair.

Shane Warne has leapt to the defence of umpire and fellow Australian Darrell Hair, saying the man at the centre of the ball-tampering row was not racially motivated and was doing what he thought was right. "He's not racist, he just tries to do the best job he can," the leg-spinner told Australian Associated Press. "The times I've had him he's been fine."
Will someone please tell Warnie to shut up, eat his double-cheese burger with beans, take his diuretic, serve his 12 month ban and REALISE his name is NOT Muralitharan, he is NOT a darkie and that Yes, the times he has had with Hair are fine because they both come from the same country. I think Leg Spinners should be seen, not heard.

AND, from Pakistan ...

The cartoon in a Pakistani Islamist newspaper on Wednesday has Australian umpire Darrell Hair dressed in a Nato uniform growling: "I am also waging a war against terrorism."

A frontpage headline in The News reads: "When we are not terrorists, we are cheats."

The ICC and Hair should realise cricket is no longer just a sport or we would not have England refusing to tour Zimbabwe on political grounds or South Africa returning from Sri Lanka due to security concerns," former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif said.

AND, from around the world :-

Mike Marqusee, The Guardian
Umpire Darrell Hair did not accuse the Pakistanis of cheating; he declared, publicly, without warning, without consultation, and apparently without evidence, that they were cheating, and unilaterally implemented the statutory punishment for the offence - awarding five penalty runs to England and changing the ball, which had allegedly been tampered with.

Peter Roebuck, Sydney Morning Herald
Hair should have been sacked years ago because he is an erratic and headstrong umpire whose time has passed. His conduct at The Oval was the latest episode in a notably contentious career. Once again he chose the path of confrontation, throwing his weight around, asserting his authority without much thought about the consequences. Certainly, he did not hesitate to accuse a touring team of cheating. He is not so much a bull in a china shop as a dinosaur in a delicatessen.

Simon Barnes, commented in The Times:
“Sky, not short of cameras or curiosity, was unable to find any footage of a guilty player doing some sneaky thing to the ball. All we have, then, is Hair’s judgment: Hair’s punishment: Hair’s abdication: Hair’s creation of one the great periodic scandals in cricket history. All I can say is that he’d bloody well better be bloody well sure that he was bloody well right.”

John Ethridge of The Sun, a paper that hasn’t been backwards in condemning Pakistan in the past, wrote:
“An 18-stone Aussie called Darrell Hair trampled his feet all over the name of cricket with an astonishing display of pig-headedness. Umpire Hair’s refusal to see sense or abandon his misguided pride meant England became the first team in history to win a Test match by forfeit. Hair was the central figure in a bewildering day of controversy, anger, stubbornness and ultimately disgrace. Everybody else — the players, the Boards, the match referee and most of all the 12,000 spectators with tickets for today — wanted the Fourth Test to be completed. But Hair plonked his considerable bulk in the way as a row over ball-tampering escalated into a Test match being curtailed a day and a session early.”

So much for the Aussies and Darrel bloody Hair. This cut-paste is a tough job. On Tv, I saw Paki protesters with a banner that spelt his name 'Darril Heir', if someone finds a pic of that, please let me know.

Riggs