Pakistan cricket team has been embroiled in controversies

 

New Delhi. The Pakistan cricket team has been embroiled in controversies on the field many times and it has also had to bear the brunt. One such controversy took place 16 years ago at the Oval in England. When the Pakistan team was accused of ball tampering by an umpire in a Test match. This exasperated the Pakistan team and the team left the field in anger. However, instead of resolving the dispute, it further complicated. After all, what was the whole controversy, why the Pakistan team did not come to play and how it had to bear the brunt of its decision. Let us tell the whole matter.

16 years ago, on August 20, the fourth day of the Oval Test between England and Pakistan was going on. Meanwhile, field umpire Darrel Hare accused the Pakistani team of ball tampering. Not only this, Hair gave a penalty of 5 runs to the Pakistan team and changed the ball with it. At this time, England had scored 298 runs in their second innings at the loss of 4 wickets in 72 overs. Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell were at the crease.

Pakistan team did not return to play on the field

This decision of Daryl Hare went to the Pakistan team and during the T-break, the visiting team had a long discussion with the match referee, officials and umpire about it. When the umpire did not reverse his decision, the Pakistan team led by Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq did not come to play. The game of persuading the Pakistan team went on for a long time. Everyone was surprised by such behavior of the Pakistan team. After a long time, the Pakistan team agreed to take the field again. But, by then the umpire had decided to end the match on the same score and declared England the winner. This further heated up the controversy.

Pakistan team cleared of ball tampering charges

The Pakistan team talked to the match referee and umpires on this issue till late night and requested them to change the decision. But, the umpires did not budge and the result of the first test match in cricket came like this. The debate on this dispute continued for a month. The International Cricket Council heard the entire controversy afresh. In this, the Pakistan team was cleared of the charges of ball tampering. However, the result of the match was not changed and on the contrary, Pakistani captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was suspended for 4 ODIs after being found guilty of damaging the reputation of the game.

ICC changed its decision after a year

Despite this, the dispute was not completely settled. After about two years, after the request of the PCB, the ICC board changed the result of this Oval Test between Pakistan-England and declared it a draw. However, instead of ending the controversy, it escalated. After a year, the ICC had to take a U-turn and after the recommendation of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the law-making body of the cricket, the ICC changed its old decision and decided to retain the earlier result of the match i.e. England’s victory. .

Action was taken on the umpire too

This result had a huge impact off the field as well. Daryl Hair has been removed from the ICC’s elite panel of umpires. However, this had to be changed after the decision of the High Court of London.