Umpires accused by PCB

14 April 2012

Shahriyar Khan, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, believes the umpires handling the fourth Test against England dealt cricket a "grievous blow" by abandoning the match.

Pakistan were ruled to have forfeited the game at The Oval after refusing to take the field after tea in protest at an accusation of ball tampering. Umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove called for the ball to be changed during England's second innings and awarded the home side five penalty runs.

Khan said: "From about seven o'clock onwards to 10.15 we all sat together - that is the match referee, the chairman of the ECB David Morgan, his colleague David Collier, myself, my colleague Zaheer Abbas and the two captains. Each one of these people said, 'Let us play tomorrow (Tuesday), we want to play tomorrow.'"

He added: "With this consensus I was hopeful a way could be found in which the umpires could say they misunderstood our intentions and were ready to play.

"Unfortunately, despite this five-man consensus, the umpires felt they could not change the decision.

"We spoke to (ICC chief executive) Malcolm Speed in Dubai to say, 'We have reached an impasse, everyone wants to play, help us overcome this letter-of-the-law hitch.

"Malcolm Speed did speak to the umpires but they remained intransigent. It was a grievous blow to the spirit of the cricket and the spirit prevailing at the meeting of moving to the positive."

Khan felt the matter had got out of control and should have been handled better at the time.

He added: "The PCB considers that the forfeiture was unwarranted and avoidable. We feel the spirit of the game was harmed and with a bit of flexibility we could have overcome this hitch."

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