Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mini Hitler?
Premise Number 1: The Ashes as fought between England and Australia is a great trophy precisely due to its lack of monetary value and excess of symbolic value.
Premise Number 2: That whatever the ins and outs of the weekends test between Pakistan and England (Evening Standard calling Pakistan cheats, everyone else being diplomatic), this is now a controversial series which will go down in cricket infamy like the Bodyline series did. Though more likely with a name like Crap-Umpire-Gate, or Hairgate* (or, for fans of old style flea-pit cinema projection: Hair-In-The-Gate).
Premise Number 3: Whilst one must admire the hyperbole and design work in these hastily put together posters of Umpire Darrell Hair, it has to be agreed that Mini Hitler might be a bit extreme. Nevertheless the brio shown by these young chaps is admirable, as is the photo op.
Conclusion: In order to build bridges between the ICC and Pakistan, and in an attempt to distinguish what is an otherwise relatively routine series between England and Pakistan, all future series between these two countries should be to gain the ownership of the nu-Ashes: namely the ashes of these hastily knocked up banners of demonised umpire Darrell Hair.
*Hairgate is what the posher denizens of Highgate call it.
Pete Baran in FT /TMFD • 800 views
PCGM-watch level ORANGE
(presumed format, expressed neutrally: “as the generation that hitler directly impacted on has dwindled, the phrase ‘little hitler’ has become less and less acceptable as a synonym (basically) for ‘jobsworth’”)
Have I mentioned that the view from my office window includes an Imperial War Museum* poster of a pie with Hitler’s face on it giving the si3g h3il.
*sorry, Britain At War Museum – IT IS PC GONE MAD.
IN A SENSE THERE IS NOTHING ect ect
Bah, Tom Ewing’s, you almost got me with yr Imperial War Museum namechange mularky.
Imperial War Museum still happily fighting for Queen and Empire! Ironically of course, it is the closest museum to the Oval too!
Mark interestingly the Mini Hitler here is probably completely ignoring Little Hitler though jobsworthiness is the exact charge he should be up for. Instead they may well be going for a racial angle: NOT WITHSTANDING THAT PAKISTAN IS THE HOME OF THE TRUE ARY@NS! (Nr enuff).
“this is now a controversial series which will go down in cricket infamy like the Bodyline series did”
Test match more than the series, which ws totally fine (as the last couple between pakistan and eng have been). But yeah, now you mention it, could this could be the match where we get a more ‘relaxed’ attitude toward ball-tampering as a tactic to remove batsmen in the way that short deliveries was for Bodyline?
haha i am pleased that the RIDICULOUS PROLIFERATION OF UMPIRES and JUDGEMENT by VIDEO is producing debacles in cricket just as much as OLD-SKOOL REFFING does in the BEAUTIFUL FOOPTIMISM
Fair enough xyzzzz___, match rather than series. Nevertheless, I think you might be right: the current “everyone does it/ its strictly against the rules” dichotomy cannot continue. And look at the reverse swing conversations last year about it being an artform. All of a sudden its also cheating*.
What next? An admission that sledging is bullying?
*Not that cheating can’t be or shouldn’t be an artform natch.
Reverse swing (and the Doosra) has had an up-and-down history, innit? (As far as I know) As a delivery, it was invented in Pakistan at the end of 80s. In the mid-90s, the eng batsmen were found completely hopeless against it in when Wasim and Waquar used it to excellent effect. it was called cheating however legally achieved, just that no-one understood the technique. Then bowlers such as Simon Jones (who I think learned it directly from the odd Pakistani player who comes over here to play county cricket) got v good at using it as a stock delivery (and he ws one of 2-3 key players in getting the ashes back) = reverse swing is OK now, except when achieved illegally (by, say, using suncream rather than sweat to shine the ball but as ‘the analyst’ pointed out on newsnight last night what if suncream is mixed w/ a bit of sweat => you can’t exactly police this v well).
Darrell Hair is one of the more experienced umpires => which also means he comes from a time where techniques developed in south-asia hadn’t been developed hence his comments over Murali’s action (although a few older players, both from australia and India have called him a chucker). So I reckon Darrell Hair still has his doubts over reverse swing.