I do not routinely use this column to address sports issues. However an incident recently at the Oval cricket ground in London during a Test match between Pakistan and England prompted me to pursue the subject. There appear to be more troubling matters than sports or the laws governing the game of cricket here.

During the course of the game, the umpire, Darrell Hair, an Australian, presumed that there was ball tampering by the Pakistanis and took matters in his hands by awarding the opposing team with 5 runs. The Pakistani players, rightfully aggrieved by his presumptions, asked him during the tea break to elaborate on his judgment. When none was forthcoming, they unanimously decided against continuing the game under such circumstances in protest at this umpire’s actions.

There were no specific charges against any particular individual in the Pakistani team at the time, nor has there been any reported or uncovered evidence to support his claim of ball tampering. Nor were 26 cameras trained on the action on the field able to pick up anything of a dubious nature. Yet, this umpire felt they were cheating and thus took action.

In the past, there have been substantiated incidents when this particular umpire ruled negatively against this same team. As a matter of fact, in an incident that overstepped the laws of cricket, he ran out the captain of the team a few months earlier in another Test match. No action by the ICC was taken to penalize or correct this member of the so-called elite group of umpires.

There were also wrongful incidents of intimidation of the Pakistani players through his peculiar interpretation of cricket laws only when it dealt with the Pakistani players. Running on the pitch, or overstepping into the danger zone when bowling was a favorite ploy used by the particular umpire to derail the teams’ concentration. It may also be noted that this umpire has in the past on several occasions been accused of bias by other Asian cricketing nations.

The Pakistani Cricket Board had had enough in the past and had requested the International Cricket Council (ICC) not to appoint Hair during any of their matches.

They rightfully felt they were unfairly being targeted and results in some matches as a consequence of Hair’s actions swung in the opposing team’s favor. Who else would do something different?

And yet the ruling elite of the ICC, ensconced in their penthouse suites in Dubai with their $1,000 suits, did not heed Pakistan’s request.

Instead they chose to close ranks and divert the attention from Hair’s biases and inadequacies by charging the captain of the Pakistani team with ball tampering and bringing the game of cricket into disrepute. An analogy of such a bizarre action would be if one were walking on a street minding one’s business when suddenly he is slapped by a passing pedestrian. Would he be held at fault if he slapped him right back? Common sense tells us ‘no’, but the fat cows at the ICC who are raking in the money by the Asian teams to support their unaudited lifestyles see it differently.

Why is the ICC not addressing Hair’s obvious biases? Is it because he is a white Australian currently carrying an English passport? Or are they trying to tell the rest of us that such feelings do not exist in the sports of cricket? We have witnessed Australians using racial slurs against Asian and South African teams. We know of incidents of racism during Australian matches with the West Indies. And no column material from ex-Australian cricketers sympathetic to Hair would convince the world otherwise.

There’s no question about it. There is an obvious undercurrent of racism and racial profiling here, an issue very sensitive among the members of the Pakistani team. Coming into London when some English citizens of Pakistani origin were being charged with trying to blow up aircraft heading to the US must have sensitized them even further. And to top it off, to be charged with a wrongdoing based on suspicions was simply too much to bear.

But for the ICC to divert the attention from Hair’s actions and refuse to provide solid proof is a fundamental flaw in the legal principles of being presumed innocent until proven guilty. Indeed, they appear to be heading that way by yanking the captain of the Pakistani team before a hearing when they should be dragging Hair by his hair to the dock instead.

This whole sorry affair is something the ICC should take the entire blame for. Appointing an umpire with dubious racial motivations would only have resulted in the chaos such as at the Oval cricket ground. The Pakistanis must stand firm and resolute in their principles and reject all unsubstantiated charges brought against any member of their team even if they have to take the matter to a court of law. Other Asian cricket playing nations should take heed and follow suit. Between them, they entertain over a billion people, and it’s time to put racial discrimination on the cricketing field to a full stop.