UNI
London, Aug 24: An agitated Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer contemplated quitting his job following the ball-tampering controversy.
According to the Guardian, Woolmer was on the brink of quitting on Sunday evening before being talked round by his wife Gill and a close family friend.
The newspaper also quoted Woolmer as saying that the ICC law which governs condition of balls should be abolished.
''Law 42.3 is an ass. It was brought in because of ball-tampering with razor blades and bottle tops and everything else in the past, but that's been shoved out of the game now. I'd scrub out the law completely,'' Woolmer told the newspaper.
Speaking against the strict interpretation of the law, Woolmer said, ''Every single bowler I know during my playing years was guilty, at least under the current law, of some sort of ball-changing.
The more laws you make to try to stop it being done, the more the players go the other way.'' The Pakistan coach even went to the extent of saying that bowlers should be allowed to change the appearance of the ball by ''natural means'' to make the game more bowler-friendly.
''I'd allow bowlers to use anything that naturally appears on the cricket field. They could rub the ball on the ground, pick the seam, scratch it with their nails -- anything that allows the ball to move off the seam to make it less of a batsman's game.'' Woolmer said Darrell Hair's behaviour was heavy-handed and the condition of the ball might have been changed by a series of fours by England batsmen Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen in the 50 minutes after lunch.
The former England batsman said his players will stand by their captain and if Inzy is held guilty ''for doing nothing essentially'' the One-day series may be in trouble.
''Whatever I say, and however much I try to get them to play, they are united behind the captain. If they feel he is unfairly treated, then I would not know what the reaction would be. There is no guarantee, bearing in mind the feelings that are currently emanating from the camp, that the one-day series will go on.''