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Pakistan’s cricket legend Imran Khan on Thursday called for action to be taken against Australian umpire Darrell Hair after Inzamam-ul-Haq was cleared on ball-tampering charges.

Imran welcomed Inzamam’s acquittal and dismissed the ICC decision to ban Inzamam for four ODIs matches on a charge of bringing the game into disrepute after The Oval Test fiasco last month.

“I welcome the acquittal of Inzamam and the team of ball-tampering charges. Pakistan have been cleared of very serious allegations of cheating,” Imran said. “The other offence is quite minor and I think the punishment is also minor.”

Pakistan forfeited the fourth Test at The Oval after refusing to take the field after tea on the fourth day in protest at the decision of umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove to penalise them five runs for ball tampering.

Imran, who branded Hair a “mini-Hitler” in a newspaper column after the Oval Test, added, “Now the next question is what to do with the man who created the whole controversy at the first place. If Inzamam is cleared of ball-tampering allegations, now clearly some sort of action should be taken against the man who was responsible for such serious allegations.

“That allegation caused the big incident where Pakistan ended up forefeiting the match,” Imran added.

Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja agreed that the ICC needed to take action against the umpire. “The ICC need to pull up their socks and take a firm decision now on Darrell Hair,” he said, adding that he thought Pakistan should appeal against the verdict.

“Pakistan’s lawyers now would be arguing that if he was not guilty of ball tampering, why has he been handed out a four-match ban punishment? I think this case is not over yet and Pakistan should contest this decision aggressively because they are in the right,” Ramiz insisted.

Source:The News

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