In one of the most disgusting moves forced by the political arm-twisting of Cricket Australia, the ICC has reinstated Darrell Hair back into the elite panel. What is more puzzling is that the ICC has declared that Hair would not officiate in any of the Pakistan team matches, in a view to work some sort of shady compromise, which is now going to further break the rather fragile excuse of a system which is currently in place.

Hair had penalized the Pakistan team for ball tampering, which led to an angry Pakistani team who felt it was a false accusation and bad conduct in the manner in which it was addressed to them, to forfeit the match and not play. What was interesting is that in the committee appointed by the ICC to investigate the incident, it was found that Hair was wrong on the ball-tampering allegation and further was warned for the manner of his conduct. Hair had refused to accept his mistake, justified his conduct and did not accept the findings of the committee, which brings us to the question of whether officials are bigger than the game itself.

When a cricketer is found to be abusing the code of conduct, a hearing happens and the player is fined or banned if guilty and also asked to apologize for bringing the game to disrepute. A cricketer who does not comply automatically gets banned for life. While these yardsticks are fair, how fair is this move by ICC led by the political arm-twisting of Cricket Australia to reinstate an Umpire who refused to accept the findings and went on to create a media tantrum, bullying, blackmailing the ICC for compensation and other things best not mentioned.

For those of you who believe that the spirit and the goodness of the game only rests in the hands of the players live in a fool’s paradise. After all these officials are not the direct descendants of Jesus Christ nor are they angels blessed by the pope to protect the sanctity of the game. They are equally vulnerable and in fact offer a more foolproof method to be in cahoots with bookies, plain racists and everything else wrong which you can associate with the game, because there is no accountability. That is why it is important to have committees to check the sanctity of the game is being in place and followed for these officials. When officials do not comply, they should be banned with all compensation removed.

The player is the breadwinner of the game for the money and also the entertainment and its popularity to spread across to new regions. If the genuine concerns of players are going to be blatantly ignored, the ICC is only launching a direct attack on them, the very reason for their existence and will lead to more and more players looking for better alternatives. Is it a mere coincidence that a fleet of players across almost all countries have been sick and tired and are bluntly looking for the first opportunity to exit from the current system in which they are blackmailed and tied up.

This is a sad day for cricket and the recent events which have unfolded for these six months is only going to widen the rift. If this continues, it is only a matter of time when there will be two independent cricketing bodies hosting their brand of cricket and there will be no unified body, which will work to spread the popularity of the game to more countries.