LAHORE, Aug 24: Supreme Court Bar Association President Malik Mohammad Qayyum on Thursday appointed a team of senior jurists to defend the Pakistan cricket team against the racial bias of ‘white’ cricket officials.

The committee comprises Malik Mohammad Qayyum, senators Dr Khalid Ranjha and Wasim Sajjad and Khalid Anwar from Karachi. The SCBA president said The senior lawyers, said the team of lawyers would defend the honour of the country and the cricket team at all cost against the ICC.

Qayyum added that Australian umpire Darrel Hair had once again exposed his racial prejudices against an Asian team by giving an extremely controversial decision on the fourth day of the fourth Test match against England at The Oval on the flimsy excuse of ball tempering for which he could produce no evidence so far.

Qayyum directed the association secretary, Ali Akbar Qureshi, to contact PCB chairman Shahryar Khan, coach Bob Woolmer and captain Inzamam for legal help.

It may be pertinent to note that Malik Mohammad Qayyum, also a former Lahore High Court judge, first rose to international prominence by heading an LHC tribunal which tried the case of certain Pakistani cricketers who were accused of match-fixing during the 1999 World Cup.

He came out with an award in the year 2000 under which Saleem Malik and Ata-ur-Rehman were banned for life and six other cricketers, including Wasim Akram, were slapped heavy fines for not cooperating with the tribunal.