The Surfer
Derek Pringle, writing in the Daily Telegraph , believes that the first innings may point to ball suspicions.
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One answer that has come to light, via the usual information creep, is that the ball Pakistan used in England's first innings displayed such obvious signs of tampering (much more than the ball the umpires eventually changed) that Hair, at least in his own mind, needed only slender evidence in the second innings to pounce.
Shane Warne has revealed what he and his team-mates have been up to at the boot camp - a John Buchanan concept - in the past week, including some tasks more associated with the military than sportsmen:
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I was shattered. But just as the night went silent, voices screamed: "Go, go, go!". What on earth was going on? A stun-bomb had gone off, and we were told the area wasn't safe. We had to move. Now. There were no torches or directions.
Mike Anstead, writing in The Guardian , on why Ashes hero Gary Pratt has to start his career all over again:
I don't want to live off what happened last year. I want to be known as a county cricketer, possibly even as an international cricketer, not just someone who made one run out. That's something only I can put right. I've just got to go out and prove myself for another county.
He might have had a glittering career spanning three decades, during which time he played at some of the world's top cricket grounds, but Sir Viv Richards still has fond memories of hitting sixes towards ambulances watched by NHS staff when he played
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But Lansdown was always my favourite ground because we had the accident and emergency department of the (Royal United) hospital next door. We used to have quite a few people who were supposed to be taking care of others stopping and watching.
Darrell Hair should never umpire another cricket match - even though there may be some truth in his claim that he was encouraged by the ICC to make an offer to quit as an umpire, writes Tony Becca in the Jamaica Gleaner .
Percy Sonn’s first few weeks at the helm of the ICC has hardly seen him at his best, and now according to Mihir Bose in The Daily Telegraph , he is to blame for events surrounding the aborted executive board meeting of the ICC.
“Sonn has only himself to blame for this latest fiasco. He had called the meeting on Friday because, as he put it, he wanted ‘to seek legal advice concerning the executive board's powers.’
Australians often fall over themselves to defend a fellow countrymen irrespective of the evidence presented, or the lack of it - as in the recent ball-tampering controversy - writes Neil Manthorp in Supercricket
You have to admire the Australians for their sense of musketeerism. All for one and one for all. When a sporting colleague comes under fire, they rally around in defence. No matter what the circumstances or the validity of the arguments.
Player, coach, captain, selector, manager, administrator and unwavering defender of the game's great values, Sir Clyde Walcott was a cricketing giant in every way, writes Tony Cozier in Barbados-based The Daily Nation .
In 44 Tests for the West Indies, he became one of the finest batsmen the game has known, forever linked with a triumvirate of Barbadian batsmen, born within a year and a mile of each other and everlastingly known as the 3Ws through the coincidence of the first letter of their surnames.
"It's not easy to accept what is inevitable, although we expect it sometimes, when it happens it still chokes you up inside."
Malcolm Conn writes in The Australian how Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, has "burnt Darrell Hair at the stake" .
Under unbearable pressure for simply enforcing the laws of the game after Pakistan was forced to forfeit the fourth Test against England for refusing to take the field in protest at a ball-tampering charge, Hair stupidly tried to end the grief for everyone by suggesting the International Cricket Council pay out his contract and he retire.