Sad Day for Test Cricket

It was an extraordinary day of unprecedented events during the lunch and tea session of the 4th test between England and Pakistan which culminated in the test being forfeited by a test team for the first time in the 129 years of Test Cricket. It was a tough decision for Inzy for whom the country's honour and the pride of playing for Pakistan is of paramount importance than any other factor and I am inclined to go along with him though awarding the match to England might have been in line with the Laws of the game.
Darrel Hair and Pakistan have a long history of love hate relationship and it was naive of ICC to have nominated him again and again for the Pakistan matches knowing fully well that trouble was around the corner. You cannot accuse a team of ball tampering when the ball is 55 overs old without any circumstantial evidence especially when you have 26 cameras on the ground which can even catch a player's sneeze and on top of that to award 5 penalty runs without even a warning is ridiculous to say the least unless Hair can come up with something extraordinary which was visible only to his naked eyes. The man in charge of the match, match referee Mike Procter allowed the on and off field events to reach a chaotic stage when he could have easily solved the issue one way or other during the tea break. I am not sure what are the implication of this decision to the Pakistani cricket and Inzy's future, but one thing is for sure and that's Hair's tenure as a neutral ICC umpire should come to an end especially if he is not able to substantiate his decision with evidence which is crucial

Of all the post match comments I liked the one from Derek Pringle who seems to be a much better sports scribe than his olden days of military medium bowling stuff

Pride, principle and prejudice replaced runs, wickets and catches.