Re: Views of non-Pakistani players on ball tampering controversy
Warne: Hair is no racist
London - Shane Warne has insisted umpire Darrell Hair is not a racist as the furore surrounding his fellow Australian’s role in the decision to rule that Pakistan had forfeited the fourth and final Test against England at The Oval last week intensified.
No one from the Pakistan touring team or board has branded Hair a racist since he, together with West Indian official Billy Doctrove, ruled that Pakistan’s refusal to take the field after tea Sunday meant they’d forfeited the match - the first time this had happened in 129 years of Test cricket.
However, Hair has repeatedly been accused of being biased against teams from the Indian sub-continent ever since he no-balled Sri Lanka off-spin star Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing a decade ago.
But leg-spin great Warne, currently in Australia for a training camp with the national side, said in a column in Wednesday’s London Times: "I don’t think Darrell Hair is a racist.
"I think that he tries to do the best job that he can, like any other umpire. He goes by the letter of the law and does what he thinks umpires ought to do.
“It is unfortunate that he has been involved in a couple of controversies in his time, but labelling him racist is unfair,” Warne, who has been captaining English county Hampshire this season, added.
“If the umpires have a problem there are clear channels to go through and it looks as though they did it by the book,” Warne said.
SOURCE: http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/Cricket/0,2-9-839_1986986,00.html