A member of the Senate's standing committee on sports senator M Enver Baig on Friday questioned the International Cricket Council decision for letting controversial umpire Darrel Hair go scot-free and clamping a four-match ban on Inzamam-ul-Haq.
Talking to Business Recorder here, the senator argued that when the Pakistan team skipper had been given a clean chit in the ball-tampering case, was there any sense in punishing him on a very rational reaction after Hair had unilaterally and unjustifiably acted against the national team.
"The umpire has been proved wrong. The actions that followed afterwards should have been overlooked. He should face the music. The PCB should have gone for a legal action against him," he maintained. The senator was of the view that the controversial umpire should be barred from supervising Test, One-day international and even First Class matches.
Hair, he contended, should be taught a lesson so that no umpire could repeat what he did to a cricket team from the sub-continent. "It appears the serious issue of Hair demanding dollar 5 million dollars for quitting umpiring has been put under the carpet. If it is so, this is again extremely unfortunate on the part of ICC," he said.
Senator Baig blamed Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Shaharyar Khan for the four-match ban on Inzamam-ul-Haq. He contended that apparently, the PCB chairman and Dr Nasim Ashraf misguided the skipper not to return to the ground after the break, when five runs had been awarded to England and the ball had been changed.