England v Pakistan 4th test farce

England won the match and therefore the series 3-0, result! However, it wasn't that simple. We were getting spanked, from the first session on the first day and looked more than likely to lose the match. Just before tea on the 4th day, the umpires called Pakistan for ball tampering, resulting in a change of ball and 5 runs to England, as per the rules. Bit of verbals in the middle but everything seemed to settle down. They went off for an early tea because of bad light. The umpires came back after tea, and should have been followed by the fielding team (Pakistan) then the batsmen. But Pakistan didn't show. The umpires waited in the middle for 20 minutes and still no sign of Pakistan. They went off and (apparently) went to the Pakistan dressing room to find out what was going on. Some sort of protest obviously. The umpires gave them an ultimatum, return to the middle or forfeit the match. The umpires returned to the middle, as did the England batsmen, but still no sign of the Pakistanis. The umpires then removed the bails, to indicate the end of the match, and they all left the field. Then the Pakistanis decided to show up. But would appear that it was too late as the umpires had declared the match to be over, due to a Pakistan forfeit. All this is within the rules. Lots of confusion, lots of blaming, lots of speculation. Who said cricket was boring! This is, according to the BBC, the first time in 129 years that a match has been forfeited.

Now, my turn for a rant! Everyone is blaming everyone on this one. The blame surely lies with Pakistan. The umpires made a decision (regarding the ball tampering) and effectively called Pakistan cheats. Now that is a pretty emotive subject, but as the umpires are in charge of the match in the middle, their decision is unfortunately what matters. If Pakistan were upset by the decision, as they clearly (and due to lack of evidence) correctly were, they should have lodged a complaint with the match referee instead of acting like spoilt children refusing to come out of their bedroom. They had make their point by refusing to come out and then were given 2 chances to resume the match, and failed to do so. They were given an ultimatum, and yet still failed to appear. Whether the ball was tampered with or not is not an issue. In every game there are contentious decisions made by the umpire and you have to accept them and get on with the game like professionals and, more importantly, like sportsmen. Pakistan failed to do that. They must understand that the ICB and match officials can't accept what they did as it would set a precedent. What if there was a contentious LBW decision and the batting captain called off his players until the decision was reversed. It would never happen would it? It's the same thing. It's not for the umpires to justify their decision whether it is right or wrong, what they say goes. Further, it's not the first time Pakistan have been involved in a ball tampering incident so it's not outside the realms of possibility that it may have happened. And why on earth would the umpires call it if they didn't see something? Grow up Pakistan.

From cricinfo