Hair under fire in National Assembly of Pakistan
Pakistan Times Sports Desk

ISLAMABAD: Controversial Australian cricket umpire Darryl Hair came under fire by the ministers and members of National Assembly after the house took up a Calling Attention notice regarding the action taken by the cricket board after allegations of ball tampering against Inzimamul Haq.

"Hair is biased and injustice has been committed against Pakistan," Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi said.

He said before leveling the allegations, Hair should have consulted captain Inzimamul Haq as the ball has been hitting the iron fence and into the hoardings.

Minister for Sports Shamim Haider said the Pakistan Cricket Board has already hired a lawyer in England to defend the allegations and the issue will be raised with the ICC. He was critical of the Aussie umpire.

"Hair is a controversial umpire and has a problem with sub-continent teams. He did not inform Inzimam that he would be penalized. Under normal practice, the umpire first calls the captain, inform him of the allegations and then proceeds further," Haider said.

"The umpire must tell who tampered with the ball. Even with 26 cameras around the ground they could not prove it (tampering)," he added.

"Inzimam was not given an opportunity to give his view." Farid Ahmed Piracha said Hair's attitude towards the third world countries teams and particularly Muslims was highly biased.

He said Sri Lanka went to court against him and Pakistan too should take up the matter in a similar fashion. Muhammad Hussain Mehanti said the whole nation was feeling dejected due to the umpire's action and said the government should interfere in the matter to sort things out.

Liaquat Baloch said the English and Australian umpire has a biased attitude against the Pakistan cricket team and other teams from south Asia.●