From Oval to WACA ....

"I am disgusted with the way the laws have been interpreted. You cannot tell whether the ball was scratched, unless you catch somebody in the process. It's a needless controversy." This was Ramiz Raja's on air comment in Aug, 2006 during the oval test, a match in which Pakistan was accused of ball tampering and as a result they decided to forfeit the game. Now flash forward three years, a Pakistani cricketer was actually caught "in the process", as Ramiz would call it. And this time what's Ramiz's reaction? He sits back and writes a lengthy piece about how we should leave the culprit alone. Some interesting lines from Ramiz's article

".. it is also time to remind ourselves that this madness stems from a certain mindset and a background. Afridi comes from an era, a cricketing culture, where ball-tampering is considered a normal cricket activity, the done thing on flat Pakistani pitches - an art form and not a sin. It's been a part of the Pakistan team's standard operating procedure."

He then goes on to compare the ball tampering practice of Pakistanis to the sledging by Aussies and the "moaning" by England when they tour subcontinent. Wow Ramiz. So Pakistanis are justified in tampering with the ball because English players complain when touring sub-continent? What next ? Pakistani bowlers are justified in chucking, because Indian batsmen are wristy ? Asif is justified in taking drugs because Sreesanth knows how to dance (or at least claims to)?

Ramiz is not done yet.
"Calling ball-tampering unlawful and an offense is regrettable...shouldn't the authorities stop looking at the practice with suspicion and instead look to bring it into the cricket syllabus so that we can all move on?"

That's a good suggestion. Now that a Pakistani is actually caught in the act, we should legalize ball tampering. May be we should also change the doping laws so Asif doesn't have to feign injury before the next big ICC event.

Interestingly, it's suggested that Ramiz's outburst on air is what flamed the Pakistani players to protest and eventually forfeit that game in Oval. Cricinfo had the story. They should have known better to base their action on such a man's word, who at best can be called inconsistent or at worst a hypocrite.