Waugh and Aussie media back Hair

Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain, has come out strongly in favour of Darrell Hair's decision at The Oval, which received scathing criticism in the English and Pakistani media yesterday. Waugh's sentiment is echoed in the Australian papers as well, with most journalists and former cricketers backing Hair.

Waugh felt that Hair did the right thing by abandoning the Test. "I definitely agree with that [Pakistan forfeiting] - if they don't go back on the field the Test is over," Waugh said in News Ltd papers. "That's quite simple. Sunil Gavaskar tried that one on the umpires in Australia [in 1981]. No-one is bigger than the game. The laws are there for a reason."

Javed Miandad was one of the few Pakistani voices that came out against Inzamam-ul-Haq's decision. "Pakistan committed mistake after mistake and put themselves in a no-win situation," Miandad told AFP. "[Irrespective of] whoever has taken the decision but it's the skipper who will face the punishment. Either he should have taken the decision immediately or have played the match under protest. Pakistan has not only lost the match, but also lost the sympathy with the crowd, who came to see the game."

Mark Taylor, Waugh's predecessor as Australian Test captain, rejected claims that Hair was biased against Asian teams. "I'm sure he's just doing what he thinks is right," Taylor told Channel Nine television.

Hair also won praise for his decision from Robert Craddock in Queensland’s The Courier-Mail. "To his great credit Darrell Hair is prepared to poke his nose into grubby corners of the cricket world where most of his fellow umpires refuse to go. Over the years he's been called dictatorial and officious and both accusations have at times been correct. But they should never overshadow the one great strength of his decision-making - the courage to back his opinion even when the protesting millions disagree with it."

Malcolm Conn takes a similar stance in The Australian. "Cricket is once again on the verge of disgracing itself by failing to support an umpire who has the courage to uphold the laws of the game," he wrote. "Darrell Hair's decision to award the fourth Test at The Oval to England after Pakistan refused to take the field in protest could cost him his international career. That the Pakistan cricket community and the British media have turned on Hair comes as no surprise. Pakistan has always played its cricket that way, and the English press knows a soft target when it see one - it has been watching plenty play for England over much of the past two decades.

“Hair’s action in awarding the fourth Test to England at The Oval in London is unprecedented in Test cricket, and, predictably, for his courage he is facing the firing squad,” writes Phil Wilkins in the Sydney Morning Herald.

However, Ian Chappell, writing in Mumbai-based Mid-Day, comes down heavily on the ball-tampering law.