They were showing the clips where Gul was starting to bowl that over, Asif handed over the ball to him, and Hair was observing all that as he and other umpire should do after every over. There isn't any recorded footage available which would provide any evidence of ball tampering. Botham basically said umpires seems to have no visual evidence of any deliberate change in the state of the ball, unless they are simply assuming that it happened. And in that case they have a very weak case.
They also acknowledged the way Inzi dealt with the siutation as any other captain could have taken the team off the field.
I hope Pakistan will not just file an official complaint because we all know that ICC will still continue with Hair in future as well. I hope to see more soild protest against him this time.
Sky team did point out Hair looking closely at Asif shinnign the ball as Gul was walking back to his run up.
He might have noticed a change in the condition of the ball after that over, but fortunately for Pakistan, Asif did everything ON HIS WATCH, and REGARDLESS of how different the ball might have become after that over, Hair cannot attribute it to anything Asif did unless he clearly saw something. The cameras didn't, and it would be pretty stupid of Asif to do anything naughty while Hair was clearly watching him closely.
So I think it's another case of Hair 'prejudging' us under the presumption that 'we are cheats' and attributing the change in condition of the ball to our tampering of it.
I think P akistan should lodge a complaint against him, but not based on his out/notout decisions, rather on his conduct towards usin other manners. Being too harsh in giving 'running on the pitch' warnings, and ball tampering etc. He's done plenty of wrong to us, we shouldn't be short of examples.
Hello and Salam 2 all,
I hope Pakistan will lodge a strong complain against Uncle Hair, Hair must clairify exactly why he gave 5 runs to english team and why he changed the ball! but the matter at hand is to get those 6 more wickets, hopefully Pakistan will get the wickets with Asif, Gul and Kaneria spinning the ball with some help from Nazir as well if he gets a chance to bowl.
I see a problem here!
Coach cannot escalate this to a level where the Tour Manager should have been on his toes from the word GO!
Captain looked little lost for words and this where a ‘protest’ should have lbeen lodged like ‘WALKING OFF’ the field for clarification purpose or the 'match should have delayed by the Pakistanis long enough to register a protest.
I certainly would dammit !
Good One AQ