No country is above the rules

A lead editorial in The Age has slammed the conduct of Pakistan’s players in refusing to take to the field at The Oval on Sunday.

“No one is bigger than the game. Cricket if nothing else is a game built on rules, pages and pages of them. A player if feeling aggrieved about a ruling can sound off about it, but the game must go on. To withdraw from the contest is to abandon the principles of the game. It also achieves nothing in winning the contest against your opponent.”

The article goes on to slam remarks attributed to senior Pakistan officials that they would not play were Darrell Hair to be appointed to matches involving them in the future.

“Pakistan, in a burst of petulant indignation, said they would not play any more matches if Darrell Hair was the umpire. First, no team has the right, nor should it be able, to dictate who the ICC appoints to officiate a match. Pakistan say they have had "problems with Darrell Hair before". Last year Pakistan took umbrage at several Hair decisions, yet in 2003 Pakistan were the beneficiaries when decisions by the same man upset South Africa in a series against them. Pakistan are guilty of playing the man. Darrell Hair did not make up the rules, he just applied them as he saw right and proper to do (and we would argue this whatever his nationality).”