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| August 22, 2006 | Tuesday | Rajab 26, 1427 |
Pakistan in difficult position: Miandad
KARACHI, Aug 21: Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad Monday said Pakistan had put themselves in a difficult position and made a mistake by not taking the field following the row over alleged ball tampering which wrecked the fourth Test against England.
“Pakistan committed mistake after mistake and put themselves in a no-win situation,” Miandad said.
Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq was certain to face a penalty, if not others, he said.
“Whoever has taken the decision but it's the skipper who will face the punishment,” Miandad said.
Pakistan stayed off the pitch Sunday after the tea interval to register their anger at being penalised five runs by the Australian umpire Darrell Hair and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove over allegations of ball-tampering.
The Pakistanis eventually came out but the umpires refused to let the match proceed. It was awarded to England.
Miandad said that Inzamam had accepted Hair's decision by playing the game till the break.
“Either he should have taken the decision immediately or have played the match under protest,” he said.
“Pakistan has not only lost the match, but also lost the sympathy with the crowd, who came to see the game,” he said.
“If I have been in Inzamam's place I would have asked the boys to play on.I would have played under protest and kept the door open for the appeal,” Miandad said.
“What Hair did would be decided by the ICC after hearing Hair, match referee and there will not be many votes in our favour. So we may emerge as loser,” he said.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani protesters burned pictures of cricket umpire Darrell Hair and chanted “You are a mini Hitler” as anger grew at the ball-tampering row.
Sporting legends also pilloried the veteran Australian official, who is already unpopular in this cricket-crazy country following a string of earlier controversies involving Pakistan.
Young cricketers and dozens of activists from Pakistan cricket legend Imran Khan's political party gathered in Rawalpindi.
“We took out a rally from the Rawalpindi Press club and we have condemned the biased attitude of Hair against Pakistan,” party official Syed Zahid Hussain Kazmi said.
Around 50 teenagers from local schools gathered at an Islamabad cricket ground and shouted “We want justice from ICC and “Shame, shame”, witnesses said.
They torched newspaper photographs which showed Hair removing the bails at The Oval on Sunday.
Protesters at both rallies chanted references to Hitler, apparently inspired by Imran's column in which he wrote: “Hair is one of those characters, when he wears the white umpire's coat, he becomes a mini Hitler.”—AFP
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