mere funde

Category: News

  • Hair-Ball-ing controversy!!

    Darrell Hair seems to beat the current bad boy cricket (Sohaib Akhtar) when it comes to being the centre of a cricketing controversy. The apparently no nonsense umpire has been removed from the elite panel of umpires and will no longer be officiating in International matches.

    While the media from Down Under and Britain are crying foul and terming it as strong arm tactics of the Asian bloc, Mr. Hair is not stranger to courting controversy. Lets take a look at his career which has never remained free from the limelight.

    1992. Adelaide Test. India vs Australia. In this match eight Indians fell victim to LBW decisions but only two of their appeals were upheld. Australia won by a narrow margin of 38 runs. Wisden felt that the entire affair was “marred … by controversy over lbw decisions – eight times Indians were given out, while all but two of their own appeals were rejected”.

    1994. Adelaide Test. South Africa vs Australia. Peter Kirsten had an animated talk with Mr. Hair after a series of Proteans were declared out LBW. Kirsten was promptly declared out LBW in the next innings, and South Africa lost the game. Many felt that the decision was flimsy at the best.

    1995. Melbourne Test. Sri Lanka vs Australia. Mr. Hair infamously no-balled Murali (from the bowlers end) for chucking. Now though the Aussies agree that Mr. Hair is very fair in all his dealings, I am ready to bet that such instances are not very common in the cricketing arena where the leg umpire is generally the one to declare a ball as being “thrown”. Lot of water has flown under the bridge since then. ICC has cleared Murali of all charges. Mr. Hair was charged (note, not penalised) for bringing the game into disrepute by calling Murali’s action “diabolical” in his autobiography.

    2005. Faisalabad Test. Pakistan vs England. Mr. Hair declares Inzamam run out for leaving his crease while taking evasive action. Cricketing gurus feel it is contradictory to cricketing laws that stipulate that batsman cannot be run out if he leaves his ground due to evasive action. [Side note: I was happy as the decision against Tendulkar at Eden Garden is avenged.]

    2006. Oval Test. Pakistan vs England. Mr. Hair, in consultation with Mr. Doctrove, declare the ball as being tampered with penalise Pakistan 5 runs and change the ball. Now, we all now that Pakistan has long faced such charges and are often in trouble for tampering with the ball and getting “some” reverse swing. Anyways, Pakistan decide that they had done nothing wrong and decide to not take the field as a mark of protest. Mr. Hair declares the match as forfieted and awards it to England. An enquiry committee then finds the ball being not tampered with and clear Pakistan of ball tampering charges but penalise them for bringing the game into disrepute. This was done after hearing the views of former cricketer Geoff Boycott and TV analyst Simon Hughes.

    On the receiving end of Mr. Hair’s decisions have been India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Africa while on the other end stand Australia and England. Now, only if someone could explain me why the so called Asian bloc (supported by South Africa, West Indies and Zimbabwe) was for, while Australia and England (supported by New Zealand) are against, the suspension of Mr. Hair?

  • Champions Trophy – Ind vs Aus

    I love Geoff Boycott for three things. HIs love for Dada ;), his accent and his kick ass comments. Ruddy balls and a nothing shot. Here is a piece from Siddharth Vaidyanthan (Cricinfo), in almost similar tone, taking pot shots at the injury Yuvraj has picked up before the all important India-Australia match. Check it out here.

    Cricinfo – ‘There will be no excuses’ – Ponting

    Best part:

    Typing in kho-kho gives you 3,040,000 search results on Google. “Ancient Indian sport”, “running and chasing”, “chariot race in the Mahabharata”. Crucially, “it does demand physical fitness, strength, speed, stamina, and a certain amount of ability”. Yuvraj can’t be faulted for the first four attributes, after injuring himself this morning, but maybe he was a bit short on ability.

    Ponting admitted Australia were “desperate” to win the Champions Trophy. Can India go on to stop them? Sri Lanka and Pakistan couldn’t stop their respective opponents and if India end up losing tomorrow, it will be the first time in 31 years – since the 1975 World Cup – that a subcontinent team has failed to make the semi-finals of a major tournament. Maybe they need to start mastering kho-kho.

    But I do wish that Sachin kicks some serious Aussie ass.

  • Sad News

    1. A friend and a great guy is in hospital due to an accident. While I pray for him, I also swear that I will never make the same mistake. Hope he gets well soon.

    2. R.I.P. Syd Barrett, the man who gave us The Wall, founder of Pink Floyd is no more. He passed away on July 7th. Shine on you crazy diamond. Here is an interesting and touching anecdote from his life (source: Wikipedia).

    Syd Barrett had one noted reunion with Pink Floyd, in 1975 during the recording sessions for Wish You Were Here. Barrett attended the Abbey Road session unannounced and watched the band record Shine On You Crazy Diamond — coincidentally, a song about him. At that time, Syd had gained a lot of weight and had shaved off all of his hair, including his eyebrows, and his ex-bandmates did not at first recognize him (one of the photographs in Nick Mason’s book Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd appears to have been taken that day; it is captioned simply: Syd Barrett, 5th June 1975). Eventually, they realized who he was and Roger Waters was so distressed that he was reduced to tears. A reference to this reunion appears in the film Pink Floyd The Wall (1982), where the character ‘Pink,’ played by Bob Geldof, shaves off his eyebrows after succumbing to the pressures of life and fame.

    In an interview for VH1’s Behind The Music, Rick Wright spoke about the session, saying: “One thing that really stands out in my mind, that I’ll never forget; I was going in to the Shine On sessions. I went in the studio and I saw this guy sitting at the back of the studio, he was only as far away as you are from me. And I didn’t recognize him. I said, ‘Who’s that guy behind you?’ ‘That’s Syd.’ And I just cracked up, I couldn’t believe it… he had shaven all his hair off… I mean, his eyebrows, everything… he was jumping up and down brushing his teeth, it was awful. And, uh, I was in, I mean Roger was in tears, I think I was; we were both in tears. It was very shocking… seven years of no contact and then to walk in while we’re actually doing that particular track. I don’t know – coincidence, karma, fate, who knows? But it was very, very, very powerful.” In another interview, Nick Mason has said: “When I think about it, I can still see his eyes, but… it was everything else that was different.” In yet another interview, Roger Waters has said: “I had no idea who he was for a very long time.”

  • Tour-de-Farce!!

    The ~3700 km long Tour-de-France, the true endurance testing event according to yours truly, has always survived the doping allegations bound to hit it due to the limits to which the human body is pushed during the event. But it seems that this year may be the beginning of the end for the great event.

    The Tour, already battling for attention after the retirement of Lance Armstrong, the ensuing doping scandal, the Fifa World Cup 2006 and the Wimbledon, has been hit hard by yet another doping scandal of such a massive scale that none of the top 5 riders of the 2005 edition are a part of this years line up.

    The doping scandal has forced Ivan Basso (2nd, 2005), Jan Ullrich (champion 1997, five times runner up, 3rd in 2005) and Francis Mancebo (4th, 2005) out of the race. Alexandre Vinokuorov, the unluckiest of them all, was forced to withdraw when the eligible riders on his Astana-Würth Team fell below the minimum of six (5 of the 9 riders of the team were suspects in the doping scandal). Though none of the charges in the Operación Puerto doping case have been proved the teams (T-Mobile, CSC and Astana-Würth, amongst others) have withdrawn the implicated riders. Mancebo has announced his retirement from the sport and many more heads are expected to follow suit.

    The Operación Puerto doping case has implicated close to 200 athletes of using prohibited doping practices to enhance their performance. A Spanish newspaper El País published secret details of Operación Puerto and accused Manolo Saiz (ex-manager of the erstwhile Würth) and Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes of doping practices along with several riders. Ullrich (who had earlier announced that he will retire after 2007 season) has denied all allegations and threatened to sue the newspaper, but one feels that he might have to reconsider his decision.

    Sometimes I think it is best that the WC2006 and Wimbledon has kept it out of limelight and has prevented a further fall from grace!! Also comes to mind the thought (however unholy it may be) of making the race a bit easier for the normal human body so that not many are tempted to dope and not many are required to.

    Meanwhile, the Tour carries on with the Norwegian Hushovd wearing the hallowed malliot jaune (the yellow jersey for the uninitiated). I sincerely do hope that the event emerges from the shadow of doping and that human spirit is the final victor.

  • Foot in Mouth Disease

    Mr. Dave Richardson (see post below), ICC's General Manager, has now been diagnosed  to have been suffering from the foot in mouth disease. Renowned experts came to the conclusion after analysing Mr. Richardson's latest effort to justify Mr. Brian Lara's on field behaviour (here).

    "Lara is a renowned player, a famed cricketer. He got frustrated (after) the umpire forced the players to make a decision. He did get a little frustrated, snatching the ball from the umpire, but he certainly did not show dissent," he told NDTV.

    Also, a symptom was his pathetic attempt to justify the fine imposed on Virender Sehwag.

    "The Sehwag incident was unfortunate. ICC wants to cut down on excessive appealing. We want to prevent players, tell them not to put too much pressure on umpires. In Sehwag's incident, it was a case of not appealing. He slipped up (on that account)."

    So here you have it. Snatching the ball from the umpire, not dissent. Celebrating for a wicket you claimed = bad behaviour.

    Update: Pedro Collins was "reprimanded" for being guilty of guilty of "the practice of celebrating a dismissal before the decision has been given," by Jeff Crowe. Did some one say double standards??