Pakistan have earned a moral victory - Zaheer

Zaheer Abbas, the Pakistan team manager, feels that his side had earned a "moral victory" after umpire Darrell Hair offered to resign in exchange for US$500,000 from the ICC.

Hair and umpire Billy Doctrove had earlier penalised Pakistan five penalty runs for ball-tampering during the fourth day of The Oval Test before Pakistan protested and forfeited the match to England. While Pakistan maintained their innocence all along, Hair had been subjected to intense criticism from the Pakistan public, prompting him to consider resigning from his post as an ICC Elite Panel umpire. The ICC yesterday revealed the contents of Hair's letter, containing an offer which he later revoked, but Zaheer maintained that Pakistan had been vindicated and their protests were legitimate.

"This is a huge victory, and it makes a strong case for us to be cleared on ball-tampering," Zaheer told the BBC Asian Network. "We were very confident that we hadn't tampered with the ball - we didn't like the way the whole thing was projected to the world. It has also vindicated our case."

England won the fourth Test as a result of the forfeiture and took the series 3-0 but Zaheer was hopeful of the result being revised. "As for whether we need to revisit the result of the last Test match - which was forfeited to England - we'll have to discuss it with the parties concerned."

Zaheer added that the mood in the Pakistan camp had improved considerably after the latest events and that the players were looking forward to the one-dayers, after the ICC announced that the tour would go ahead as planned. "The boys are jubilant on this news. All along we maintained that we were innocent, and it's now been proven right. I've always stated that we're a cricket-loving country and I'm glad the one-day series will go on."