Ross Emerson took his three young children to the Perth Water Slides on Friday, as far away from the WACA and another confrontation with the Sri Lankans as he could find in his home city and the perfect place to begin the rest of his life
27-May-2006Ross Emerson took his three young children to the Perth Water Slides on Friday, as far away from the WACA and another confrontation with the Sri Lankans as he could find in his homecity and the perfect place to begin the rest of his life.The umpire at the centre of the latest crisis to hit cricket has experienced too much trauma and real danger to become worked up about the week that could end his involvement in the first-class game.Emerson is a man alone. For the last week the cricket world has been in a stampede as players and officials have sought to distance themselves from him. Yet the umpire who rocked the sportby deciding to call Muttiah Muralitharan for chucking in Adelaide last Saturday has no regrets. His decision, he insists, was something that “came from the heart”.Emerson is not prepared to go into detail about the events of the last week; about the shameful behaviour of Arjuna Ranatunga, the Sri Lanka captain, that shattered the calm of the Adelaide Oval; about the revelation that he has been on sick leave from work at the Ministry of Fair Trading in Perth for eight weeks; about the decision to stand him down for Friday’s rematch between England and Sri Lanka. And he will not comment about the arrogant way in which Ranatunga chose to bulldoze through the International Cricket Council’s code of conduct by threatening to drag cricket through the courts if he was suspended. Emerson is not prepared to jeopardise what little chance he still has of officiating in an international match again – but it is clear that he feels let down, angry and bitter.”I can’t imagine why you’ve rung me,” he laughed when he was tracked down on Friday just as Muralitharan was preparing to bowl his first ball at the WACA. While umpire Peter Parker stood inthe square leg position that was supposed to be occupied by Emerson, the former policeman was spending the day with his young family and was doing his best to get away from it all. “I’m not thinking about cricket today,” insisted Emerson. “When you’ve been through as much as me you learn to compartmentalise your life.”Emerson’s colourful background is the key to understanding theman. For whatever is felt about his motives for repeating hispublic humiliation of Muralitharan of three years ago and abouthis reputation as being confrontational, cocky and a’grandstander’, it is clear he has lived a fascinating life.It is one that saw him driven away from his Sydney home by deaththreats during a distinguished career as a police officer. He waseven praised in the Australian parliament as a “very fineofficer” for his part in investigating internal corruption in theNew South Wales force. More recently, however, his life hassuffered a new setback in Perth where the cause of his”stress-related” condition remains a mystery. It is said thatEmerson has clashed with his superiors over their failure toprosecute companies he has investigated and is furious with themfor revealing that he was away from his desk. He plans to returnto work this week for yet another showdown with his employers,after which he will discover whether he still has an umpiringfuture.Emerson, approaching his 45th birthday, has never officiated in aTest match and almost certainly never will. After a stormymeeting with Denis Rogers, chairman of the Australian CricketBoard, on Tuesday, even his place in Shield matches may now be indoubt. Apparently, the pair parted on poor terms after Rogerstold Emerson he was standing him down from England’s match onFriday, ostensibly on health grounds but surely related to theevents of Adelaide.But not everyone has turned against him. Since the events of lastweekend, Emerson, whose brother-in-law is the former Australianfast bowler Terry Alderman, has received a number of messages ofsupport, including a call from Geoff Marsh, the Australia coach.He also received words of encouragement from several Englandplayers who witnessed at first hand his bitter confrontation withRanatunga. All this is likely to count for little, though. It isalmost certain that the ACB and the ICC will decide that tore-appoint such a controversial figure would be simply too muchtrouble.Emerson, who shot to prominence when he called Muralitharan forthrowing seven times during his first international umpiringappearance at the Gabba three years ago, is not the only officialnursing private grievances. Darrell Hair, the Australian whostarted the Muralitharan ball rolling in the Boxing Day Test of1995 at Melbourne, is still waiting to hear when he will becalled to account by the ICC for bringing the game into disreputeby calling Muralitharan’s action “diabolical” in hisautobiography.The only communication Hair has had from the ICC since he wascharged was a fax at home telling him not to wear his ICCNational Grid panel jacket until the hearing. Australia will haveone umpire at this year’s World Cup, with Hair in theory the hotfavourite to fill the place. Do not be surprised, however, ifDaryl Harper, of South Australia, gets the nod instead.Law 24.2 stipulates that an umpire must call a bowler forchucking if there is any doubt in his mind that a delivery islegal. Looking at it in cold terms, it is easy to see why Emersonand Hair felt it necessary to no-ball Muralitharan. But they arepaying a heavy price for their conviction.England, meanwhile, arrived in Sydney last night after theirthumping victory over Sri Lanka on Friday with David Graveney,the manager, saying he felt “more emotional about watching thatEngland victory than any other game”. Graveney added: “We hadlost a couple of games and we had had a demanding few days. Then,at 34 for four, we were looking down the barrel. To then win bythe margin we did was extraordinary.”England have been given the next two days off by Graveney, nowthat they are on the brink of qualifying for the final of thetriangular series, and they will be back in action at the SCG onWednesday. Graveney will spend the time briefing the England andWales Cricket Board about his observations on the Adelaideaffair.”I am fully confident as a result of all this that theregulations of the ICC will be altered to try to keep lawyers outof disciplinary hearings,” he said. “The situation has to bemoved on from here.”