I wonder who I'll be commentating on...
Hello everyone,
So according to the latest on t’internet this morning, I will definitely be driving down to Bristol on Monday to commentate on an international Twenty20 match for Test Match Special.
My preparations are being slightly complicated however, by not knowing exactly who I’ll be commentating on. Here are the three options as I see it:
Option A: A dispirited, demoralised and down right brassed-off Pakistan turn up to play England. Although they’d rather be sticking hot pins into their own eyes, the Pakistan management team see the commercial implications of pulling out of the one day series, and don’t want their friends at the ECB to lose out.
Option B: A rejuvenated, reinvigorated Pakistan team appear on the field in Bristol, prepared to forgive and forget the whole sorry saga. They appear massively ‘up for it’.
Option C: The Pakistan team are on board a Pakistan International Airways flight bound for Islamabad, and Stephen Fleming is leading out a hastily cobbled together World International Mega Star (and Available) XI. According to the fixture list for Monday, and bearing in mind the Glamorgan v Notts Pro40 match has been switched to Sunday so that Stephen Fleming is available to lead the World International Mega Star (and Available) XI, the only other match that day is Durham v Sussex in the Pro40. That leaves pretty much every overseas county player available for selection.
Come to think of it - if you could select an all-star international XI for a Twenty20 match, who'd be in your lineup? Leave me a comment and let me know.
It doesn’t end there though: another international team could be parachuted in for the One Day Internationals.
The Chief Executive of the ECB, David Collier said this morning: "The ECB can also confirm that it has been in discussion with the ICC and other full member boards to provide a further contingency plan for the NatWest series. These discussions are well advanced, but it is hoped that the Pakistan team will be able to fulfil its commitments."
Apparently, the West Indies are on stand-by to step in, and to save the ECB £10m. South Africa say they’ll step in as well if necessary. Blimey, we could hold a mini-World Cup.
The plot thickens.
Onto more prosaic matters, and I achieved cricket-watching nirvana last night, and there’s more to come. I was carelessly flicking through the million and one channels on satellite last night, as you do when you’re bored.
I raced through channel 442, and had reached the mid 450’s when I thought, “HOLD ON; WHAT WAS THAT?” My thumb was a blur as I scrolled back to the aforementioned channel 442, ESPN Classics.
“It can’t be,” I thought, a little slack jawed, “that’s Larry Gomes batting”. Indeed it was - I had found the old BBC highlights of the Headingley Test match in 1984, England versus the West Indies. Jim Laker, Tom Graveney, Ray Illingworth and of course, Richie Benaud were the commentators.
If you have satellite or cable, tell the other half that you’re busy on Sunday. From 11am until 7pm, ESPN Classics are showing highlights of the entire Test series plus the Texaco Trophy (Viv Richards 189 not out, remember?).
Greenidge’s double hundreds, Malcolm Marshall breaking his hand and still hitting Paul Allott for four, Allott taking 6 wickets in an innings, Joel Garner steaming in, Andy Lloyd breaking his arm. I was only 11 at the time, but watching it, it seemed like, well to be honest, 22 years ago.
I’m not sure whether my bosses at the Beeb will approve of this tip, but I see it as a public service!
Enjoy.
Interesting that you get your work handed out to you over t'internet - can't your boss be bothered to speak to you directly!!
As to whom you could be commentating on at Bristol, why don't the commentators offer to take on England, this would give the former a chance to put their money where their mouths are and the latter an opportunity to ram the words back down your throat (in the nicest possible way of course). Umpires for the match could be Mssrs Ul Haq & Gatting......
Complain about this postI think pakistan w'd be the first one to forgive and forget but one is not asking forgiveness and hair thinks he did rigth by charging for ball tampering what a shame.
Complain about this post"Come to think of it - if you could select an all-star international XI for a Twenty20 match, who'd be in your lineup? Leave me a comment and let me know."
Well me and my mate have got tickets for Monday's Bristol Twenty20 and I really can't be bothered with any international XI that would turn up and play. A county rep side? not very exciting...
Our cricket club (Chipping Sodbury near Bristol) have got their own Twenty20 tournament on Monday between England, West Indies, Australia and South Africa (just Sodbury players involved of course!).
Not much chance of Pakistan being represented at either Bristol event....
Complain about this postMore than likely the twenty wont happen. Resulting in monetary losses to ECB , Skysports and BBC . I am fine with that.It comes down to sadist reciprocation.
Complain about this postIt has been reported that Hair wants $500,000 to quit. WOW. I think I was right when I left last message that he is a greedy man who did this for financial motive. Wait till he writes a book and mints money out of it. Innocent Inzi fell in the trap. He might be a good batsman but not a cunning tactician like Hair.
As far as ODI is concerned many who wanted to see 20/20 & ODI England vs. Pakistan wll not be interested in seeing England vs. International XI.
Hair should be asked to foot the bill for ECB loss.
ECB and PCB should jointly take him to court.
Complain about this postDid you spot the deliberate mistake above?
Of course, it was Paul Terry who had his arm broken in the Old Trafford Test in 1984. Andy Lloyd had been in the wars earlier in the series. Terry still came out to resume his innings with his arm in a sling. He was bowled by Joel Garner, but not before he saw Allan Lamb to his 3rd Century of the series.
Complain about this postInternational Twenty20 XI
Graeme Smith
Complain about this postShahid Afridi
Stephen Fleming (c)
Kevin Pietersen
Ramnaresh Sarwan
Mike Hussey
MS Dhoni (wk)
Andrew Flintoff
Brett Lee
Shoaib Akthar
Murali
I feel sorry for Hair, he must have seen fit to check and charge for ball-tampering. He's been destroyed in the media for doing his job in a game that he loves and in asking for the fee, I dont see it as greed at all.
Complain about this postI think Pakistan did the right thing. Without any evidence what so ever you cannot accused any side and call them cheat. Darrel Hair was made a massive mistake not consulting with the team and explaining himself. This saga drama boil now to one person and that is DARREL HAIR himself.
Complain about this postI am sure england and Austraila would have done the same think as Pakistan. Till today no evidence is summitted and why are ICC offering Darrel Hair $500,000 to resign. They know the evidence is weak and he has made a massive mistake by assuming.
ICC offering Darrel Hair $500,000 to resign?
Complain about this postDo ICC know something that we don't?
This clearly show ICC know Darrel Hair made an assumption on his decision and accused pakistan of Cheat...... It should be Darrel Hair penalised and charge for making the game is disrepute not pakistan.
One thing that has come through from press conference is that Billy Doctorv was not even consulted. Hair bull dozed with his impression.
Also it is clear that ICC and all others wanted the match to go on and Hair wouldnt budge.
Look at the damge he has done:
1- Put public at a loss
Complain about this post2- Inzi being charged for ball tampering when there is no evidence.
3- Cricket as a game losing as who wants to see bad umpiring again and again.
4- Only two parties benefitting from it lawyers and Darell Hair
No Darrell Hair offering to resign in exchange for $500,000 from the ICC, which is pretty fair I think, after all it's a job in a game he loves (as mentioned above).
Complain about this postIf no Eng v. Pak would they refund if their is an international XI v. England match.
I dont want to see a match which is not really between two international sides
Complain about this postI think that after disclosing the ... "lifestyle choice" as this was the very reason I moved from Australia to settle in the UK three years ago." .. Darrell would lose some support he had from his home country.
That also raises issue of him being biased. How come if his wife is a Brit & live in the UK he was appointed in match involving England.
ICC is reall in shambles.
It was interesting to see Speed going red in reponse to some questions. just shows ICC being on a weak wicket.
Interesting would be to see Innocent Inzi (& Pak team) cleared of ball tempering charge and being punished for the other charge of disrepute.
Where would ICC stand then with their so called elite umpires? Would Hair be punished for bringing a team and players and spirit of the game into disrepute.
I think Hiar should be charged for greaer offence then poor Inzi.
Complain about this postFirst Hair asks for $500000 and then he wants to make more money by putting clause number 5 in his email 'This in no way precludes me taking civil action (and exercising my rights as a resident of the UK in any court of law and by any other avenue open to me) against any organisation or persons currently part of ICC and in particular, members of the Pakistan cricket team and the Pakistan Cricket Board.'
How can Speed & Sonn from ICC say there was no monetary motivation behind his email or actions?
And the plot gets thicker!
Complain about this postRead this from yesterdays Gurdian by Marina Hyde
... cricket umpire Darrell Hair recently remarked to an interviewer, "If an umpire is feeling that he is under pressure, then there must be some flaw in him", and it is this indomitable spirit that has clearly sustained him since Sunday's sensational triumph for the rulebook at The Oval.
Now it is being said that he was under stress... hahaha
I think Wasim Akram is right that there are double standards.
Complain about this posthttp://football.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1856771,00.html
International X1 - Only really UK based players likely.
1. D. Maddy / N. Astle
Complain about this post2. S. Fleming (c)
3. D. Hussey
4. D. Lehmann
5. A. Flower
6. D.Bravo
7. G.Jones
8. A. Mahmood
9. H. Streak
10.A. Bichel
11.N. Doshi
Mr. HAIR, by demanding $500,000 for a safe passage you have exposed your real face to the world, which is really really ugly.
HAIR is a man of principles "MY FOOT".
Can some one tell Mr. Hair that it is CLOBBERING TIME and he must not even think of running away and that with $500,000 too. Its simply not this easy!
Asif
Complain about this postThe more BBC shows the scenes of Oval Sunday the more we see actions of Hair and his non verbal behaviour to be of an arrogant man who wanted to dictate the proceedings and also control his other fellow umpire who should have been 50% responsible for that day.
I think Billy Doctrov shlud be off the elite panel of umpires for being gutless and weak.
I think a lot hinges on Billy Doctrov's statement
Complain about this postClearly, (hopelfully) the ICC is telling Hair to shod off by releasing his emails !!!
Complain about this postsorry omar, while not completely agreeing with hair i can see where he's coming from as he's offering to leave having never been shown to do anything wrong. i am neither racist or stupid so how dare you blanketly accuse people of such things - racism doesnt go one way mate.
why is everyone so certain pakistan are innocent? they might well be but no-one has accurately described a situation where the ball is checked and declared fine over after over until all of a sudden its not fine. as for the sit in - what reaction could people possibly expect from it? let them off as they're sulking? incredibly unprofessional
Complain about this postThe pakistan team should be cleared from the charge of ball tampering.
Complain about this postBut still, they should be charged for bringing the game into disrepute.
Perhaps we could all pass the hat round to raise $500,000 for Hair!!
Complain about this postThe Darrel seems to playing around with bookies, 05 runs and ball tempering allegation should be considered as a match fixing by Empire. Strong chances are that so called Gentleman “Darrel” could have already earn the sum of same as he claimed from ICC.
Jamshaid
Complain about this postTest Cricket Ball tampering saga.
Whilst watching the test match last weekend I noticed that whilst returing to his mark a the player bent down and rubbed his hands in the dirt before rubbing the ball. I pointed this out at the time to my wife who has even less knowledge of the rules than me.
Surely such action if I saw it is a matter of record. Presumably you have access to every second of play. Have a look!
Complain about this postMalcolm Speed attempts to make excuses for Darrel Hair by saying that he was under stress. Remember that Inzi was accused of CHEATING. Therefore, under how much more stress would Inzi have been?
Let's put the boot on the other foot for a moment. If Inzi had emailed Ranjan Madugalle & offered to SECRETLY pay US$ 500,000, direct to his Bank Acoount, but only if Madugalle agreed to adjudicate in his favour, would Malcolm Speed have attempted to make excuses for Inzi by saying that he had acted under stress & did not mean to be malicious, dishonest or underhand? If so, then I am a Chinaman. On the contrary, Inzi would quite rightly, have been torn to shreds & vilified by all & sundry. It would also have precipitated an IMMEDIATE end to his playing career.
Following Hair's actions on Sunday, when he first accused Pakistan of CHEATING, he was variously described as being a Strong, Hard, No nonsese, type of man, who is not only always Fair, Just, HONEST & PRINCIPLED, but is also a man of INTEGRITY. I'm afraid, Hair's subsequent actions in asking, et al, for a SECRET PAYMENT of US$ 500,000, has exploded this myth & shattered his so called honesty, credibility, integrity & the rest, assuming he had all that in the first place.
Now that the real Darrel Hair, whose patently obvious LACK OF JUDGEMENT, has been so glaringly revealed, how can any CREDIBILITY be attached to his original JUDGEMENT that the condition of a 56 overs old ball had been deliberately tampered with & altered? The answer must be an emphatic "NO WAY".
Therefore, if Hair's original judgement is dismissed as lacking credibility, it must naturally follow by a logical process of deduction, that everything that went thereafter, must also collapse like a House of Cards.
Pakistan & Inzi should not have any case to answer.
I rest my case.
Complain about this postThere are several issues in this whole scenario of Darrell Hair offering to resign for money:
1) The money/resignation issue has nothing to do with what happened at the Oval. Pakistan are trying desperately make the two part of the same case, but this should not happen. If the ball was tampered with (and Mohammed Asif seems like a plausible culprit), Pakistan will stand revealed as cheats, and particularly despicable cheats, who were incapable of facing the truth of their actions. Whatever Darrell Hair did later has no bearing on the facts of this case. Nor does his mistake justify Pakistan's manipulative and dishonest "protest".
2) What exactly was said to Darrell Hair by the ICC before he wrote to them? Did the ICC say that he should put his terms in writing and they would consider them, with an understood "we will agree, just put it in writing"? If so, the way they released the letter is extremely cynical, and would leave them without any integrity.
3) Can we now trust the ICC to run an real inquiry? At this point, it would be more logical to find a genuinely neutral arbitrator, rather than a body which has so little detachment in legal, financial and political terms. Does anyone really trust Malcolm "play in Zimbabwe" Speed?
4) The real racism in all of this has been perpetrated by Pakistan and their supporters, who have used Darrell Hair's skin-colour as a means of making the most ridiculous accusations of racism. This boils down to Pakistan being unhappy becasuse he actually applied the rules, and Sri Lanka using reverse racism. We should remember that virtually everyone thought Muralitharan was a chucker when Hair called him - and the belated "legalization" of his action has not been convincing to many cricket lovers. If Hair is to be condemned as racist because of his dealings with Sri Lanka, then we had better accept that most cricket watchers are to be similarly condemned.
5) Darrell Hair never caused anyone physical injury - it is the cowardly and bigoted mobs in Pakistan who are calling for his death and denouncing him in racist terms. Pakistan should apologize for the behaviour of these so-called cricket fans before they even attempt to attack Mr Hair. Until they do so, talking about honour/izzat is cheap and contemptible.
Complain about this postHello Arlo,
I think we could possibly see ‘option B’ on Monday and during the one-day series, but with all the twists and turns of ‘Ovalgate’ who knows what may happen between now and Monday.
With the BBC’s extensive cricket archive, would it not be wonderful if all of it were not put online? I’m sure it would be hugely popular with cricketing fans. I remember as a youngster watching the BBC’s cricket coverage in the 90’s when there were rain breaks and they would shows clips from the 1970’s and 1980’s which was captivating viewing. Could there not a be case for the BBC to use BBC 3 as a similar channel to ESPN Classics and replay classics sporting matches such as classic cricket matches?
Complain about this postWell you have got the answer to your options The Pakistani's came out al guns firing and forgetting the whole saga. I hope they are going to do the same in all the ODI and then Darille will have another bad Hair day
Complain about this postHi, I am enquiring about your channell 442. I was wondering do ye show GAA on it. I am looking for a game that was played in 1984,it is football - All Ireland football semi final. Teams that were playing are Galway and Dublin. This game was played in Croke Park Dublin Ireland..
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