August 29, 2006	Tuesday	Sha'aban 4, 1427

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KARACHI, Aug 28: While the ruckus over Hair-raising US$500,000 payoff exposure is set to rumble on, two former ICC match referees have thrown their weight behind the burly Australian umpire.

John R. Reid, the New Zealand Cricket chief who was known for his anti-Pakistan stance when he acted as match referee from 1993 to 2002, claimed on Monday that a lack of video evidence will not harm ball-tampering allegations against the Pakistan team.

The former New Zealand Test captain told The Australian that during his time as the ICC official there were quite a number of occasions when the tactics of Pakistani bowlers became questionable.

Six years ago Reid fined and suspended fast bowler Waqar Younis in a match for ball-tampering. “It’s obvious he was in the wrong but the umpire or referee gets the blame,” he said.

Commenting on The Oval fiasco, the New Zealander says: “Everyone is saying there is no video on this. You don’t need the video evidence. You’ve got the ball… They would have had the ball at the meeting when the charges were laid.

“They wouldn’t do that unless the ball showed a lot of evidence of tampering,” Reid further adds.

Reid also took a swipe at Imran Khan, the ex-Pakistan captain, saying the great all-rounder was one of the pioneers of ball tampering.

“He (Imran) wrote a book about it,” he said.

“Have a look at the book. There was a chapter in there saying how to do it. I’m afraid it’s a joke.”

Reid told the same paper that ‘Hair had done good job’ but ‘gone one step too far’ with his request for a hefty payout. “It’s going to be very difficult for Darrell Hair from now on I would imagine,” he said.

However, the former match referee had kind words for the embattled umpire” “He’s a well respected umpire. OK, he’s a tough old bloke but you’ve got to be a tough ld bloke every so often.”

Meanwhile, another ex-ICC match referee, Barry Jarman, set a cat among the pigeons when he revealed the other day that he once confiscated a ball from South Africans, who were then coached by Bob Woolmer.

Woolmer, who is now with Pakistan, has firmly denied Jarman’s claims on Sunday stating that he was unaware that anything of that nature ever took place when South Africa played in a One-day International in India in 1997.

But Jarman, the ex-Australian Test wicket-keeper, told Adelaide-based paper, The Courier-Mail, he was saw two South African fielders — with Jarman not willing to reveal their names —scratched the ball, which was in use for 16 overs at the time, and rub sweat into one side of it.

“The open seam which caught the sweat meant one side was heavier than the other,” Jarman told the paper.

He goes on: “I noticed that Allan Donald, all of a sudden, started swinging the ball all over on the television and I said ‘hello, what’s going on here?’”

Curiously, Jarman insisted Donald was not one of the players tampering with the ball.

He instructed the umpires to replace the ball immediately, much to Woolmer’s displeasure. The then South African coach stormed into match referee’s room to seek an explanation.

Jarman, who confiscated the ball and has kept it with him ever since, then told Woolmer: “Your guys are stuffing around with the ball, mate.

“I told him (Woolmer) who it was and he went out with his tail between his legs. I said to him ‘if you really want to make something of it I can give it to the press and we’ll see what happens then. But I will just give you a warning to cut it out.’ The two players later came up to my hotel room and apologised.”

Jarman admired the ‘honest manner’ in which Hair had conducted himself in the past and backed his firm stance during The Oval Test last week.

“I really admire Darrell Hair for what he’s done in England,” he said. “He is a guy who tells the truth and is suffering for it. He is one of the best, an umpire who can lie straight in bed.”