JEDDAH, 27 September 2006 — The International Cricket Council Chief Executives Committee met in Dubai on Monday and Tuesday and agreed to adopt an amended Anti-Racism Code. Increasing racial slurs against non-white cricket team members when playing in Australia prompted this move.
And while the amendment will allow a range of punishments to be imposed on spectators found guilty of racial abuse, ranging from ejection from the cricket grounds to a life-time ban, very little was said about the disturbing trend of racism within the ICC.
The question of Darrel Hair, the umpire who so arrogantly chose to term a Pakistani team as cheats without evidence to back him up seems to have turned the table on the victims themselves, in this case, the captain of the Pakistani team, Inzamam ul-Haq. It will be Inzamam who will be in London to face charges of ball-tampering and bringing the game of cricket into disrepute.
And it was Inzamam who was charged with this offense from ICC headquarters moments after the events at The Oval. And it is Inzamam who will most likely be slapped by some kind of fine and possibly banned from some games as an ICC face-saving gesture when the ICC face him in the next couple of days.
What Darrel Hair, the umpire, did to generate this response was overshadowed by Malcolm Speed’s condescending approach to his fellow Australian. Following shocking press disclosures that Mr. Hair attempted to wrangle over a half million dollars from the ICC in order to go retire somewhere peacefully and in style, Mr. Speed jumped to his defense with the following comment, “Darrell Hair was under great stress when he wrote these letters and I am confident that Darrell Hair had no dishonest, underhand or malice intent - he was seeking to find a solution in the interests of the game.” He also added, “I don’t believe he saw it as an opportunity to make money. In no way did he indicate that his decisions on Sunday were in any way incorrect.” Speed met with Hair, whose contract runs until March 2008, on Friday. “I told Darrell he is not sacked, not suspended, and has not been charged.” He further added, “I was shocked. I thought it was a silly letter.” Another white ICC executive, Dave Richardson added, “He does what he thinks is right regardless of the consequences. My immediate reaction was ‘typical Darrell’.” And a spokesman for the ICC added “We have no desire to be in conflict with Mr. Hair. He is one of the world’s best umpires and we have no doubt that he was under a great deal of stress when he sent the e-mails that he later revoked.” This is about an umpire who called the Pakistanis ‘monkeys’ back in 1995 for excessive appealing.
And while Darrel Hair was actively engaged in explaining to newspapers his reasoning, the ICC was quick to reprimand Inzamam for stating in one of the papers that he felt the umpire was in ‘big trouble.’ The ICC reasoned that such statements would be prejudicial to the case, forgetting the fact that some of their chief executives had been shooting off their mouths publicly in favor of Mr. Hair. This money making body is comprised mostly of whites in the upper ranks with a smattering of subservient nonwhites. So are we to take it for granted that Inzamam and Pakistan’s goose is cooked when the hearings begin? Based on the alliance of ICC executives and publicly stated sympathies with Mr. Hair, I would not bet against it. And therein lies hints of subtle prejudice or more harshly the dark augurs of racism.
