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18.03.2008 16:21 - category: World News : BBC News
- Source: BBC NewsAustralian Darrell Hair has been recalled to the International Cricket Council's elite panel of umpires.
Hair has not officiated in a major match since the infamous Oval Test in 2006, when Pakistan refused to play amid suggestions of ball-tampering. The 55-year-old was subsequently dropped from the panel. He began a racial discrimination claim against cricket's governing body but dropped the case and has since been on an ICC rehabilitation programme. After Pakistan refused to return to the field at The Oval in 2006, Hair and fellow official Billy Doctrove awarded the match to England, the first forfeit in Test cricket history. The controversial incident was then examined at an ICC hearing in London. Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, was cleared of ball-tampering charges but was suspended for four one-day internationals after being found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute. Pakistan refused to take part in matches in which Hair was officiating, claiming he was biased against teams from the sub-continent. Hair remained contracted to the ICC but he was not chosen for international matches involving Test nations, instead taking charge of a match between Kenya and Scotland. Having resided in England for several years, Hair was offered the chance to officiate in domestic county matches by the England and Wales Cricket Board, but declined. Hair, who umpired the first of his 135 one-day internationals in December 1991 and the first of 76 Test matches in January 1992, will now be available to resume as an official in both forms of the game at international level. "The board have decided that he can now be appointed to matches involving full member countries once more," an ICC spokesman confirmed. BBC reporter Pat Murphy observed: "Darrell Hair will be entitled to deep satisfaction at this verdict, not least of all because his marks have always been among the top three umpires in world cricket during his time as an international umpire. "There was never any doubt about his quality as an umpire and his decision making. It was more, in the eyes of some of the Asian countries, his attitude. "Darrell Hair took the brunt of all that and he has been vindicated both in terms of his decision making in that Test match and also in terms of his overall competence as being an international umpire again."www.free-voipservice.net
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