By RICHARD BOOCK
He hasn't quite swaggered into town and single-handedly cleaned up the streets, but there is more than a hint of the lawman about John R. Reid.
At 72 years of age cricket's senior match referee, the former New Zealand captain has blazed a trail as one of the game's straightest-shooting administrators, not to mention someone with a zero-tolerance policy towards breaches of player conduct.
But when Reid ignored a political and legal minefield last week and suspended Waqar Younis for attempting to alter the condition of the ball, it was suggested that he may have shot from the hip once too often.
The man known as "Bogo" in his playing days and "the schoolmaster" in his current role found Waqar and team-mate Azhar Mahmood guilty of ball-tampering and captain Moin Khan guilty of "allowing the spirit of the game to be impaired" during the one-day international between Pakistan and South Africa at Colombo.
Waqar, who has taken 308 test and 311 ODI wickets, subsequently became the first player in the history of the game to be suspended for such an offence.
However, Reid's involvement with the South African television crew at Colombo has raised the hackles of Pakistani officials, who are complaining to the International Cricket Council about his actions, and demanding that he be stood down as a match referee.
London's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that Reid - who had warned Waqar for a similar offence only days earlier - had approached the producer of the South African television unit, Richard Parker, to ask for help in identifying potential ball-tampering.
"We saw Waqar almost immediately, but Azhar kept turning away from the cameras to shield what he was doing," Parker reportedly said. "But we had enough cameras and kept them on him, even during the commercial breaks. Eventually, we caught him."
Not surprisingly, Pakistan have queried the television channel's role in the operation and are asking whether the South African crew would have gone to such lengths had the target been Shaun Pollock or Lance Klusener.
They have also raised the question of whether Reid - who, they noted, lived in South Africa between 1981 and 1992 - would have made such an approach to a television crew from the subcontinent.
Although Reid is unable to comment officially after his findings, the Telegraph noted that he prided himself on being the "hard man" of the ICC panel, and that he let it be known that he would have been "a mouse" if he had not acted when Waqar was caught again.
Waqar seemed baffled when confronted with the news. "I've been doing the same thing for 15 years," he said.
Another area of concern for the ICC will undoubtedly be the suggestion that Reid erred procedurally by not insisting that the ball in question be changed.
According to reports, Sri Lankan umpires Ashoka de Silva and Peter Manuel were unaware of any problems until Reid contacted them by radio and asked that the condition of the ball be checked. They apparently found nothing untoward and play continued.
But this would seem to be at odds with the unequivocal language contained in rule 42.5, which demands that the umpires immediately replace the ball once an offence has been established.
Last week's oversight brings to mind an acutely embarrassing incident for the ICC five years ago in Australia, when the Sri Lankan team were accused of altering the condition of the ball, only to be exonerated on the grounds that, because the ball had not been changed, there was no evidence to support the allegations.
Whatever Reid's motives, and whatever reputation he might have as a hardliner, it seems he, too, may have made a mistake while making his findings at Colombo, at least in terms of due process.
On this side of the planet, it might all seem rather small beer. But from Pakistan's point of view, such a brew must take some swallowing.
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