August 22, 2006	Tuesday	Rajab 26, 1427

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LONDON, Aug 21: When the engineers of the clash of civilisations between West and East, Infidel and Islam, planned their final battle, could they have imagined this battle of heavyweight teddy-bears?

"In the bearded corner," says the referee — which unfortunately turns out to be the Australian Malcolm Speed — "we have the paratha-loving captain of Pakistan, a country of ball-tamperers, match-fixers, and hot-heads. In the beardless corner, we have the Pakistan-hating, rule-loving umpire from, ahem, my homeland.

"Let the battle begin. I'll make sure it's a fair one."

Well, excuse me for dissenting, but this little bit of arbitration strikes me as highly unfair. The ICC appointed Darrell Hair didn't they? They stuck by him and his record of colourful decisions against people of darker hue.

They supported his brand of arrogance and disdain for players he can't quite understand. They nurtured his passion for attention-seeking through acts of gross insult. First, Sri Lanka suffered, then India. Now Pakistan and Mr Hair have become inseparable.

And the years of abuse and complaints taught abuser and abused separate lessons. The abuser, the teddy-bear in the beardless corner, felt untouchable. Every time he indulged his favourite sport of goading Pakistan, his ICC masters heard no evil or saw no evil.

The abused, in the bearded corner, felt a growing sense of outrage. Every time he complained about being abused, his ICC overlords would force him to spend more time with this abuser. Eventually, he was left no choice but to make a stand — and what a stand he made.

Yet the ICC, the short-sighted master, will probably fail this test too. It is an organisation that shirked responsibility for a match and a sport that was being destroyed in front of millions.

The ICC's inaction on that fateful Sunday was criminal. It devolved the fate of the match to the whim and obstinence of one man, a man with a history of intransigence — and nothing predicts behaviour like behaviour.

It was within the ICC's power to force Hair — and Billy Doctrove, if he insisted on supporting his domineering pal — to stand down from officiating, there were third and fourth umpires available.

The match referee wanted the game to continue. The teams wanted to perform the final act in an enthralling dead-rubber that was anything but dead. The cricket boards supported a restart. And, most importantly, over twenty thousand spectators at the ground and millions at home wanted it.

Yet what triumphed was one man's intransigence, one man's pedantry, one man's desire to deprive the world of entertainment. And since the decision to find Pakistan guilty was subjective, we can — at last — safely say, one man's prejudice.

Shame on you Darrell Hair, shame on you ICC for supporting this selfish man. And you can predict what might well happen on Friday. The ICC will display the spine of the spineless, an absence of bones that it is fond of publicising, and support its umpires.

The ICC mistakes authority for justice. It has failed to understand that an admission of error is the first step in improving a system.

And whether or not Inzamam made an error by not stomping off the minute his country was slandered, and whether or not he made another error in not completing the match, will be long debated.

But Inzamam's are the lesser evils — and his stand has rightly been seen by the world to be noble. Indeed, his errors pale into insignificance against those of Hair.

It is increasingly clear that Mr Hair betrayed the spirit of the game, something he is supposed to be upholding. He accused, judged, and sentenced Pakistan on the basis of his own unsubstantiated beliefs, not on a shred of evidence.

It is clear he didn't believe the Pakistan captain and his team worthy of an explanation, a chance to clear their names. It is clear that he manufactured the forfeiture of the match to secure his own triumph. It is clear that he held the views of players, officials, cricket boards, and spectators in complete disdain.

It is clear that this man is unfit to officiate at international level, perhaps at any level — he has been unfit for many years now. It is clear that he does hold a bias against Pakistan. And it is also clear that the ICC has aided and abetted his reign of insult and abuse.

For the sake of the spirit of this game that many of us still love the ICC has to exonerate Pakistan and deliver us from Hair. His position is now completely untenable — as will be the ICC's if it doesn't make the right decision on Friday