Hair and Inzamam should be sacked

Peter Roebuck breaks away from the Australia media pack to attack Darrell Hair for his decision at The Oval. After the local columnists backed the umpire's courage yesterday, Roebuck writes in The Age “cricket has been reduced to a state of high farce by a bone-headed umpire and an impetuous touring team".

Hair and Inzamam-ul-Haq should both be removed from their posts. A plague on both their houses. Actually, Hair should have been sacked years ago because he is an erratic and headstrong umpire whose time has passed. His conduct at The Oval was merely the latest episode in a notably contentious career. Once again, he chose the path of confrontation, throwing his weight around, asserting his authority without much thought about the consequences. Certainly, he did not hesitate to accuse a touring team of cheating. He is not so much a bull in a china shop as a dinosaur in a delicatessen.

Richard Boock of The New Zealand Herald too agrees that Hair and Inzamam were at fault, but makes a valid point that the idea of an umpire taking a unilateral action against one team on the basis of a hunch, in the process provoking an unprecedented forfeiture and tarnishing the reputation of an entire team, isn't likely to go down well at ICC level.

Phil Wilkins remembers England’s walk-off and walk-back-on at the SCG in 1971.

The England fast bowler John Snow never knew how close he came to rewriting Ashes history 35 years ago when he swaggered back to the fence below the Paddington Hill at the SCG in 1971,” Wilkins writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Tony Cozier remembers some acrimonious incidents involving umpires from the past.

At a crucial stage on the last day of the first Test [West Indies' tour of New Zealand in February 1980], which they lost by one wicket, fast bowler Michael Holding vented his frustration by kicking over the stumps with a full, graceful swing of his right foot after yet another appeal, this for a wicketkeeper's catch, had been turned down. When what they felt were several obvious decisions again went against them in the second Test, West Indies delayed their return to the field after tea on the second day for 12 minutes as a mark of protest.