Karachi, July 3 : Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq today demanded compensation from the ICC for the four-match ban he faced for his role in the Oval Test fiasco. Welcoming ICC’s decision to reverse the trouble-ridden Oval Test between Pakistan and England in 2006 to a draw, Inzamam, the then skipper of Pakistan said the forfeited win result for England was never fair. “I always felt the pinch about the result because we were in a winning position in that game and we were deprived of an opportunity to win it due to a mistake,” Inzamam said. “The ICC adjudicator cleared me and my team of any ball-tampering charges, and in fact it was umpire Darrell Hair who was censored for the way he handled things in the match.

“I was banned for bringing the game into disrepute. But now that the ICC has even changed the result, I want to know who will compensate me for the loss of cricket I suffered. I had to miss the 2006 Champions Trophy because of the ban,” he stated.

Surprise decision

Although Inzamam was satisfied with the reversal of the decision, he expressed astonishment on Hair’s reinstatement in ICC umpires panel. “But yes I am surprised that the umpire (Hair) is back to supervising Test and international matches.”

Inzamam was accused of not leading his team on to the field after tea on the fourth day of the Test in protest over Hair’s decision to penalise the team five runs for ball tampering. Hair and fellow umpire Billy Doctrove of West Indies later awarded the match to England as a forfeited result. Former chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, Shaharyar Khan, who was a central figure in the Oval Test controversy and also appeared as a witness before the ICC adjudicator during the inquiry, said justice had been done by changing the result of the match.

“A draw is a fair end to the match because Pakistan wanted to carry on and continue the match but due to some blunders everything went wrong,” he said.