Oval Move Big Achievement For Pakistan

Hair - wrong move.

The Pakistan Cricket Board have welcomed the decision of the International Cricket Council to declare the controversial Oval Test a draw a 'big achievement' for Pakistan.

The Test between England and Pakistan at the Oval in August 2006 was originally awarded to England after umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove ruled Pakistan had forfeited the Test by refusing to return to the field after tea on the fourth day.

Pakistan eventually took the field, but by then the umpires had deemed the match a forfeit.

Hair had kicked off the controversy by deeming that the ball had been tampered with and imposing a five-run penalty on Pakistan. The charge of tampering was vehemently denied by the Pakistan team.

Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was absolved of the tampering charge at a Code of Conduct hearing by the ICC, but was charged with bringing the game into disrepute. Hair, meanwhile, was removed from the ICC's Elite Panel of umpires.

"I would like to specially thank the ECB for not resisting PCB's proposal to change the status of the Test," said Nasim Ashraf, chairman of the PCB.

"In fact, the ECB was also not too convinced about declaring the Oval Test a win in their record. It was an umpire's decision and that was indeed debatable.

"From the very beginning, it has been our stance that the Test should be declared a draw since the Pakistan team was ready to take the field and play after the short boycott."