"It's Not Cricket!"

I don't know if you are all following the latest cricket drama. Pakistan is touring England, and had already lost the test match series. The last match was being played at the Oval in London. Pakistan looked like it might pull off a win in the last match to look at least a little respectable. On Sunday, out of nowhere, one of the umpires penalizes Pakistan 5 runs for "ball-tampering." The entire Pakistani team basically revolts, claiming they have done no cheating, and ask for evidence to be produced to back up the charge. They go back to the dressing room, refusing to come out to resume play. The match is eventually awarded to England as a forfeit, the first forfeit of an international test match in 129 years of the game.

The umpire, David Hair, is a white Australian who has had questionable dealings with non-white teams before (Sri Lanka, most notably). In addition, there were TWENTY-NINE cameras trained on the action on the field, and thus far, not one of them has recorded anything questionable by the Pakistani players. There will be an official ICC hearing, and Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have already said they will support Pakistan. Interestingly, India has basically come out against Pakistan (but maybe they will change their mind - let's hope). All this reminds me of the hyper-charged racist atmosphere that accompanied Pakistani tours of England in the 1970s and 1980s. Am I just paranoid, or does this event coincide perfectly with the most recent "terrorist alert" in the UK?

Here's one comment on the affair. I don't have any illusions about the integrity of Pakistanis, but I'm betting on Inzi's squad this time.