Hair-splitting: Botham, Boycott criticise ICC

London, Aug 21 (UNI) Ex-England skippers Ian Botham and Geoffery Boycott came down heavily on the ICC for its handling of the ball-tampering controversy, and while 'Beefy' said the governing body was ''apathetic'' in its attitude, Sir Geoffery minced no words and said appointing Darrell Hair as umpire in the series against Pakistan was a ''stupid'' decision.

''The ICC must be blind or stupid not to have realised that there is history between Darrell Hair, the umpire who accused them of changing the nature of the ball, and Pakistan. There were mutterings after the Headingley Test that Pakistan didn't like Hair's attitude,'' Boycott wrote in his column for the 'Daily Telegraph'.

''The events at the Oval yesterday were farcical and reflected little credit on the England and Wales Cricket Board or the ICC,'' he added.

Boycott said the ICC should have known that the appointment of Hair will not go down well with the Pakistanis, who had protested against the decision.

''Pakistan regard Hair as an officious umpire and they don't like his style of man-management. It should have been obvious to the ICC that appointing him to this series created a situation like a volcano waiting to erupt,'' Boycott explained.

Meanwhile, Ian Botham also joined Boycott in criticising the ICC for its laxity in dealing with the matter and said that the governing body's ''apathetic'' attitude in the whole incident was unacceptable.

''The ICC are the alleged governing body who left 23,000 paying spectators, and millions of people tuning into TV and radio coverage, completely in the dark,'' Botham said in his column for the 'Daily Mirror'.

''And they are the administrators who should have sorted out an unholy mess by separating hard fact from innuendo and supposition at the fourth Test, which will now be remembered for all the wrong reasons,'' he added.

Both Botham and Boycott said the visitors were within their rights to feel aggrieved by Hair's decision as no team wants to be called a cheat.

Drawing comparisons with the Shakur Rana-Mike Gatting incident in 1987, Botham said the Oval Test was perhaps the worst cricketing moment after the infamous stand-off between the Pakistani umpire and the English captain.

''It is probably the most serious incident of its kind since the row between Mike Gatting and Shakoor Rana in 1987, when a whole day's play was lost in the Faisalabad Test,'' he said.

Botham also said that the ICC's ineptness in controlling the situation has maligned the Pakistan team's image, which is now being accused of cheating.

Botham also felt that Hair should have been more responsible in his handling of the situation.

And although Boycott refused to comment on the correctness of Hair's decision, the former captain said that since umpires can now check the ball anytime, it would be foolish of any player to tamper with it.

''They needed to make a statement specifying exactly why the ball was changed, what they had seen, who was involved and how often.

Otherwise, the whole Pakistan team stands accused of cheating,'' he said.

''The whole image of international cricket is at stake here,'' he added.

Boycott was not very happy with the match officials' attitude towards the crowd, which was not given any information about the proceedings.

''The biggest farce of all was that no one thought to keep the 23,000 spectators, who had paid a lot of money to watch the game, informed,'' he said.

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