Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Hair Hitler and the rise of National Umpirism

Our greatest fear has arrived.
A new Hitler has risen from the Ashes. The Ashes. Get it?
According to Imran Khan, cricket umpire Darryl Hair is a "mini-Hitler".
Phew. I'm glad we have been warned early. We can now intervene early to stop the dreaded "white shirts" marching through Pakistan, India, Jamaica, England, New Zealand and the whole cricket world.

But seriously, who the hell does Imran Khan think he is?
In any sport you need officials and in any sport you get different degrees of officiating. I think it was Merk during the football World Cup who ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, over officiating in order to protect Brazil. Was he called Hitler? No, he just took his umpiring too seriously.
Darryl Hair umpires in his own style. He is very strict and I'm sure he is aware of Pakistans history of Ball tampering.
Oops! Sorry! Have I hurt anybody's dignity?
Hair did not call the Pakistani team "cheaters". ( I could talk about Imran Khans' Playboy past, but that's another story.) But for Imran Khan to call someone "Hitler" for applying the rules of the game is shameful.
What is more shameful is that he is getting away with it. His attempts to be involved in politics are going off to a great start. He managed to slander someone and look like the good guy.

As it currently stands, we are not sure who tampered the ball, if it was tampered at all. If Hair has made a mistake, I imagine he will be disciplined by the ICC. But if he is correct, the Pakistan cricket team need to have a good look at themselves.
Imran Khan on the other hand has been disgraceful, no matter what the findings are.

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