Is Darrell right?

When disgraced cricket umpire Darrell Hair’s QC Robert Griffith’s claimed that his client was being racially discriminated against, it raised more than a few eyebrows.

The truth of the matter, however, is that sub-continentals are among the most racist people in the world, and there’s a distinct possibility that Mr Hair is being victimised by the so-called “Asian bloc” of cricketing nations, simply because he’s white (the fact that he’s Australian makes no difference).

The sub-continent is increasingly targeting 'white nations' with racial abuse that manifests itself both verbally and physically. That they garb it in patriotism and national pride demeans both those admirable notions.

Cricket has become an Asian domain; this is where the money and crowds are, and in the battle to wrest control of the powerbase from the traditional stomping grounds of the sport’s elite at the MCC, they are using the same tactics these nations did to keep Asians at bay in the early years of the game.

The sub-continent must tread carefully here, because if anyone, they should know that tradition can, at times, trump wealth.

The Controversies

• Hair's first Test match was between Australia and India at Adelaide on 25 January to 29 January 1992, won by Australia by 38 runs with second innings centuries for David Boon and Mark Taylor after a first innings of only 145, and two 5-wicket bags by Craig McDermott. Wisden (1993 ed., p1011-2) noted that the game was “marred … by controversy over lbw decisions – eight times Indians were given out, while all but two of their own appeals were rejected”.

• The Test match between Australia and the West Indies at Adelaide on 23 January to 26 January 1993 was a fluctuating match won by the visitors by a mere one run. The victory was achieved when Australia’s No. 11, Craig McDermott, was dismissed after a 40-run partnership with Tim May had brought Australia so close to victory. Hair ruled that a short-pitched ball from Courtney Walsh had brushed McDermott’s glove and upheld the appeal for a catch, but many observers believed that McDermott had not gloved the ball.

• In his only match between Australia and Sri Lanka, at Melbourne on 26 December to 30 December 1995 he called Muttiah Muralitharan seven times in three overs for throwing. Wisden (1997 ed., p.1129-30) stated “unusually, he made his judgement from the bowler’s end, and several minutes passed before the crowd realised that Muralitharan’s elbow, rather than his foot, was at fault”. Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga responded by leading his team off the field. When they finally returned, Ranatunga switched Muralitharan to the other end where he was not called by either Hair or his colleague, New Zealander Steve Dunne, although Hair told the Sri Lankans at tea on the second day that he was ready to call him from the striker’s end.

• In November 2005, Darrell Hair referred a run-out decision concerning captain Inzamam-ul-Haq to the third umpire Nadeem Ghauri during the Faisalabad Test. Inzamam was taking evasive action, and according to the laws of cricket, a batsman cannot be run out if he leaves his ground due to evasive action.^[11] However, if Hair suspected that Inzamam had been already out of his ground when the evasive action was taken then the referral would have been justified as if that were the case the batsman would, under the law outlined above, be out.

• On 20 August 2006, the fourth day of the fourth Test between England and Pakistan at The Oval, Hair was involved in controversy when he and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove ruled that the Pakistani team had been involved in ball tampering. They awarded five penalty runs to England and offered them a replacement ball. Play continued until the tea break, but the Pakistani players refused to take the field thereafter in protest at the decision.